Amazing, Arizona
by Allaine
Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. Full summary in disclaimer
1. Prologue

Title: Amazing, Arizona (Prologue/??)  
Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.  
Rating: R

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Prologue

"Wish we were back in San Francisco," the engineer muttered.

"Don't we all," one of the men sharing the engine said. "But we ain't, and we ain't gonna be back for some time. So just watch the train, okay?" He adjusted the rifle on his shoulder and looked out across the desert.

The engineer grumbled but focused his eyes ahead. "They say Texas is miles and miles of miles and miles, but they've never been to Arizona."

"Only thing out here in Injuns," the other guard said. He leaned his rifle against the cab of the train engine and drew his revolver, checking the sights. "Navajo, Hopi - course, you can't forget the Apache."

"I was _trying_ to, thanks," the engineer complained. "It ain't no fun imagining Geronimo ambushing my train every twenty miles."

"Try imagining the whores in Tombstone then. I do," the first guard said. "It'll take a day for them to load the silver onto the train."

"If we're bringing silver back East, then why the hell is it called a gold train?" the engineer asked.

"We're carrying gold too, jackass," the first guard replied, taking a moment to spit out his window. "They're still mining gold in California, don't forget. Been thirty years since they found gold there, and they're mining it. Suppose they'll be mining silver in Arizona thirty years from now too."

The other guard laughed. "Sure, and isn't that where I want to be in 1909 - guarding the money trains? Hell, I'd rather be spending it than watching over it."

"Well, you won't be spending none of this gold," his colleague pointed out. "Not with anuther eighteen men on the cars behind us."

"Really think we need twenty men?" the engineer asked nervously.

"You're the one worryin' about Geeronimo."

The engineer quickly determined he liked having twenty guards on the train.

"Yep, just Injuns," the second guard said, returning to the original theme. "Used to be buffalo, I s'pose, but they're all gone."

"Hey," the engineer spoke up, "y'all ever see one of them mutant buffalo?"

"Them's a damn fairy tale," the first guard sneered.

"I seen one," the engineer said defensively. "Out there, on a trip West from Denver. Damn thing was near three times the size of a regular buffalo. Coulda fed a tribe on that beast for a month!"

The first guard spat again, but it wasn't tobacco this time. "Beast is right. Fucking muties is all beasts. I'd sooner trust a Crow than a mutant."

"Amen," the other guard agreed.

"Uh, hey, guys?" The engineer squinted into the dark. "Looks like there might be something blocking the track."

"Hell," one of the guards grunted. "Can you see it?"

The engineer started applying the brakes. "It's big, whatever it is." The light shining from the train engine began to show the obstruction in more detail. "Hairy. Must be a buffalo." He blew the train whistle, but the creature didn't move. "Holy mother of God," he then breathed. "You see the SIZE o' that thing? I think it's one of them mutie strains of buffalo!"

"Damn," the other guard swore. "That thing can't be so big. Maybe if it was in Africa, maybe." Exasperated, he leaned out and signaled back to the next car, alerting them to the holdup.

The train crawled to a stop several yards from the buffalo carcass, a shaggy thing that reeked of death. The two guards leapt down, each keeping both hands on their Winchesters.

"Might even be the last mutie buffalo in the U.S.," one of them mused.

"Might be a few bucks in it for us," the other noted. "The men who killed the last mutie buffalo in the world."

"It'd help if we actually killed it."

The second man hoisted his rifle. "Who says we didn't?" Then he pumped three shots into its head.

Not much happened. The head didn't even move. And then the fur seemed to ripple a little, like being blown in the breeze. Except on this Arizona desert night, there was no wind.

Then the two men lost sight of the headlamp behind them as the buffalo's shaggy skin flew through the air. It landed on them and knocked them flat, suffocating them with its stench.

"Mutie buffalo? Aw, everyone knows that's just a _big fish_ story!"

Standing on the track, he was no buffalo. He didn't look like an ordinary man either. He was certainly some kind of man, but one that stood almost eight feet tall and appeared to weigh several hundred pounds. He seemed to be squinting, his eyes almost obscured by his red, puffy cheeks and porcine face. Clutched in both hands was a long length of iron chain. Tremors shook the earth as he somehow was able to run forward. One foot landed on the buffalo skin under which the two guards were still trapped, and one of them could be heard to scream horribly as the massive weight evidently crushed part of his body.

"Ambush!" the engineer screamed.

A flash of dull, brick red caught his eye. Turning, he saw a small round head hanging upside down in one of the cab windows. "No shit, human," the thing said, showing needlepoint teeth in its mouth as it spoke.

The misshapen creature leapt inside, its back hunched over, odd lumps clearly visible through the skin. Long hairs ran down his arms below the elbow, ending in sharp claws. It jumped on the engineer's shoulders and sank its teeth into the man's throat, making a savage motion with his head that severed an artery and splashed the cabin with human blood.

"Yee-haw!" the monster screamed, delighted. It licked its teeth. "I got me a choo-choo!"

Then a shot rang out, clanging off the metal of the engine. The creature looked out balefully and spotted the man standing on the next car, aiming for another shot.

He was unable to, however. A chain shot up from below and snaked its way around his ankle. The man was pulled below, and his scream became one of pain, rather than one of surprise, within a moment.

"Thanks, Whale," the little fiend called out.

"Don't mention it, Palmetto," Whale replied as his massive bulk disappeared down the length of the train.

Palmetto's eyes rolled around in their sockets before fixing on where Whale had been standing. "Wait up!" he screeched as he clambered out of the cab and skittered along the roof of the next car faster than a normal man might walk.

"Shit, it's the Charnel House Gang!" The cry rose up from farther down the train, but the guards could see for themselves. The Charnel House Gang had a million in gold on their heads _apiece_, after a run-in with the U.S. Cavalry led to a lot of dead horsemen. There weren't many of them - just the five.

But they weren't natural, not one of them.

Three guards backed away hurriedly, firing their Winchesters as Palmetto, all three feet of him, came towards them. Several shots struck the creature, the last one hitting him between the eyes and splashing grey matter all over. It collapsed and lay still.

"Holy shit," one of them whispered, transfixed by the sight, while still revolted by the twisted little thing. "We done killed the Palmetto!"

That was the last thing he said.

A slight pulse from the corpse, almost like seeing a human heart beat, was the only warning they had as the corpse broke open, and a hideous green thing leapt out, grabbing one man around the neck with a hand and burying its claws in his chest. He screamed and fell from the top of the car, the monster casually jumping away in time and turning its attention to one of the others.

"Did you hear that?" one of the guards asked from within the car where the gold was being kept. "It sounded like a body."

"Which your soul's about to take leave of if you don't stay sharp!" his boss shouted, keeping his gun trained on the reinforced door at one end. "They're gonna - "

The door was flattened from the outside like it was tissue paper, and the men fell back. "Fire!" the leader screamed.

Shots rang out from five different repeating rifles, but nothing was there. The doorway was empty. All they could hear was a dry, rattling sound.

"Oh fuck me," one of the men whimpered. "It's the rattler . . ."

The giant snake slithered through the door so quickly, it was in the room before they could react. Which was unfortunate for the leader, as the diamondbacked rattlesnake swept its heavy body out and struck the man in the belly, throwing him against the wall of the train car and breaking his spine. It rattled its tail in the man's face and bore its fangs at the other men.

"Sssstep away from the ssssafe," it hissed.

An unfortunate man fired a shot that merely bounced off the snake's scales, and he was nearly decapitated by fangs that tore his throat out and dripped poison that burned the floor.

The other men threw down their guns and moved back.

The serpent's laugh was a dry, hissing sound. "Good," it said. "You can die together."

It opened its mouth once more, and exhaled green, poisonous clouds that surrounded the men and quickly had them on their knees, vomiting blood.

As for the men in the caboose, they didn't bother to fire their guns. They ran, helplessly, up the track and away from the train, leaving the sound of men being slaughtered behind. Their cowardice was not rewarded, however, as they were cut off by yet another gang member. This one went about its business silently, using claws and two sets of teeth to rip the men to shreds. Then he licked the blood from his white wolfish fur and calmly loped toward the train.

The last guard to die never tried to defend himself. He was found in the caboose, rocking himself back and forth. "He smells like piss," Wolf said, disgusted.

"Smells like food to me. Let me at him, Forktongue," Whale replied.

"You can eat your fill once we bring the bodies on board and get moving," Forktongue said coldly. The snake was coiled up inside the caboose, the man huddled within its body, while the others looked on from outside. Being more than just an oversized snake, Rattler now had the head of a human to go with his snake's body, so they could understand him better. "We've got to get this train running. Nobody knows what we've done tonight yet, but they'll know by tomorrow. You just git to that locomotive, Striker."

"Right," the last member of the gang said. He wore a heavy, dusty coat that knocked against his ankles. He was also the only one with guns at his belt. They'd taken the gold train without firing a shot. "We'll be in Tombstone in no time," Striker added.

"No, we ain't, because we ain't going nonstop to Tombstone," Forktongue reminded him. "Unless you want to bypass all the easy pickings along this rail line."

"What? Fuck the easy pickings! What's in a half-dozen small towns that we cain't get in Tombstone?" Striker complained loudly.

"It ain't about that," Forktongue said. "It's about us making sure nobody in Arizona Territory EVER forgets the Charnel House Gang. I want EVERYONE pissing themselves when they hear the name. Never mind that Whale needs more food than what we got, even with the bodies of those stupid humans. Besides, what're YOU in a rush for? You think we can't take what we want from Tombstone whether we get there in one day or four?"

"Whores and whiskey, probably," Wolf leered.

"Yeah, well, I don't know if these whistle stops got whores, but they got whiskey," Forktongue retorted. "And they got plenty of women that'll wet your whistles too. So how about we get with the plan?!"

Striker sulked. "Sure, boss," he muttered.

"What about him?" Whale asked, jerking a contemptuous thumb at the sole surviving guard.

"Think he's talkin'," Wolf said.

Forktongue leaned his head close and discerned that the man was indeed talking. "It's just a dream, it's just a dream," he was repeating over and over again.

"Sure, enjoy the rest of your sleep," Forktongue said before he closed his coils tighter and slowly strangled the man to death. "Now we ride in class, boys!"

To be continued . . .


	2. Chapter One

Title: Amazing, Arizona (1/??)  
Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.

Rating: R

Feedback: Always.

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Chapter 1

He flung his cards down in disgust. "Fold," he grunted. "Swear to God, these are the worst goddamn hands I ever been dealt."

"You said that before," another man said smoothly as he laid down his cards and swept up the cash in the center of the table. "And I allowed your friend there to deal. Would you feel better dealing the cards yourself?"

"You seem to be dressed up right nice," the losing poker player said unkindly. "You make your money gambling, Mr. Fancy Pants?"

"Actually, I come from a position of wealth," the other man replied as he casually stacked the gold and silver coins he'd amassed. "But I do make a pretty penny at the tables, yes."

"My experience, people who make a living playin' cards don't always play 'em fair, if you catch my drift," the dealer said, narrowing his eyes.

"Now, now, gentlemen, you're the ones who keep folding and bluffing with bad hands. How am I to blame for the cards you're getting?" the winner replied.

"Bartender!" the dealer called out.

A burly man with blond hair came over, wiping his hands with a towel. "You need something, sir?"

"You got another deck? I'm not sure I trust these cards no more."

The bartender gave a long look to the man who'd done most of the winning. "Sure," he finally said. He went back behind the bar, retrieved a second deck of cards, and exchanged them for the old deck. "Here you go."

"Thanks," the dealer muttered as he gave everyone a fresh hand.

"He's at it again, deputy," the bartender murmured as he moved to the other end of the bar, shining the wood with the cloth in his hand.

"What in Sam Hill do you expect me to do about it, shugah?" the deputy asked, before throwing back a beer. "He's the mayor's son. You know I cain't do nuthin' about it."

"You could get the sheriff," the bartender said. "At least stop him from taking these poor drifters for all they got."

"You want them spending their money, not losing it," the deputy replied. "Am ah wrong?"

"Does that make what he's doing right?" the bartender retorted quietly.

The deputy sighed and got off the stool. "I'll tell the sheriff," she said before taking her hat and pushing through the saloon doors.

The poker player in question glanced up for a moment and saw the saloon doors swing. He pursed his lips but returned to his cards.

The deputy strolled across the dusty boards that passed for a sidewalk in front of the storefronts, tipping her hat to the men and women she passed. A few more yards took her to the sheriff's office - a small building where a few sturdy jail cells took up over half the space. What was left was occupied by a pair of desks and a few chairs.

In one of those chairs, the sheriff sat, feet up on the desk. "Rose," the sheriff said. "You're not on duty yet."

"Evenin', sheriff," Rose said. "Bartender sent me to find you. Looks lahk Jason's doin' it again."

The sheriff had been rolling a cigarette by hand, but now the tobacco and rolling paper was tossed aside in irritation. "Damn it, Rose, what the hell does he expect ME to do about it?"

"Well, I _told_ him that," Rose said defensively. "He said you could stop him from takin' any more of their money."

"Sure," the sheriff muttered. "Sorry, boys, but you'll never win playing against this young man, because he makes you see things that aren't there. And I'd give you your money back and throw his scrawny ass in a cell, but he's pulled this shit a half-dozen times, and every time his mother orders me to release him." The boots hit the floor with a thud, kicking up dust.

"Want me to go with you?" Deputy Rose asked, lifting her hat with one hand and running the other through her curly brown locks.

The sheriff sighed. "No, Waylon's out at the Double X ranch. A couple heads of cattle are missing, and it looks like rustlers. Might have been the work of one of the chief's Indians."

"Ain't that just fine indeed?" Rose said sourly.

"Indeed," the sheriff repeated. "Anyway, you'd better hole up here until I'm back, 'case some new crisis pops up."

"Right."

"I'll go see if I can put an end to Jason's latest deception," the sheriff continued. "AND make sure the suckers don't tear his tomfool head off like that time six months ago."

A giant of a man ducked his head as he exited the sheriff's office. He checked the tin star on his vest to make sure it was affixed properly. "Think this'll work?" he asked, looking back inside at the deputy.

"It certainly worked TWO months ago," Rose replied.

The sheriff chuckled dryly and straightened to his full height, almost seven feet tall. He cut an intimidating figure as he walked back up the main street and pushed the doors to the saloon open.

Everyone else in the saloon grew quiet as he entered. A few sidled away, already knowing exactly where he was headed. Everyone in that saloon knew you didn't play poker with the mayor's boy.

Everyone, that is, except the two strangers who'd stopped in the town of Amazing for a drink and a room before continuing on their way to Tombstone in the morning.

"Evenin', boys," the sheriff said as he came over to the table where the three men sat. "Enjoying our little town?"

All three men slowly looked up at the man towering over them. The strangers looked properly respectful for the moment, while Jason looked sulky. "Sheriff," he said indifferently.

"Be a little nicer if our luck would change," one of the travelers said.

"Maybe you should quit now. Maybe your good luck's continued on to Tombstone without you," the sheriff replied.

"How did you - "

The sheriff laughed quietly. "Boys, only two kinds of strangers come to Amazing. People going to Tombstone, and people leaving it. You look like you're going."

The man who had dealt the last hand shrugged. "With not much more than the clothes on our backs at this point," he muttered.

"Which is why they should keep playing," Jason suggested. "You could win it all back."

The third man threw his cards so they landed face-down. "Doubt it," he said.

"Besides," the sheriff said, "I'd wager your mother - "

"Stepmother," Jason shot back.

"Whatever you like," the sheriff replied amiably. "I'd wager she'd like you home soon."

"She can come here herself and tell me that," Jason grumbled.

The sheriff suppressed a sigh. Jason Shaw was a shiftless no-account, but he was the mayor's son. _Stepson_, as he'd pointed out, but that didn't mean she treated him any less for it. "I think you've had enough tonight, Jason."

The dealer looked back and forth between the sheriff and Jason. "Why do I git the feeling you're not telling us something, sheriff?"

"You really want to know?" the sheriff asked. _Oh, you stupid little man, if you only knew the danger you were in._

"Looks like I've bought the right to know, don't it?" he replied, gesturing to the money sitting in a tidy pile in front of Jason.

"Sheriff, what do you think you're doing?" Jason asked querulously.

"You," the sheriff said, ignoring Jason as he pointed at the man who hadn't spoken. "You just folded. What cards did you have?"

The man she'd pointed at looked bewildered. "Uh, a king, a ten, a couple little cards. Why?"

The sheriff turned the cards over, not knowing for sure what he'd see there.

It wasn't exactly a flush, but only a fool would fold a pair of aces.

The two strangers stared at the cards. "What - but - " the first man stammered. Then he turned his gaze on Jason. "You little shit, you're one o' them freaks, aren'tcha?!"

He rose slightly out of his chair, but the sheriff dropped a hand on his shoulder and shoved him back down. The sheriff's other hand found its way onto the shoulder of the dealer.

"It's not a word I'm particular fond of," the sheriff said quietly, "but he's one of them special ones, that's right. He kin make you think you're seeing something when you're actually seein' something else, but only while you're touching it. Once you put those cards down, he couldn't do jack shit with your mind."

"I oughta put a bullet in - "

"You'll do no such thing," the sheriff warned him, his voice growing colder. "Much as I wouldn't mind seeing him flat on his back, he's the son of our mayor, and I'd feel bound to put your rear in a jail cell until the marshal takes you away. What you _can_ do is sit there for a moment while Mr. Shaw here gives you both your money back - "

"Hey!" Jason said angrily. "You can't - "

"Shut up now, boy, before I let him go for his gun," the sheriff shot back.

"I'm no boy, I'm twenty-two!"

"And I saw twenty-two a long time ago, so you're still a boy to me. As I was saying, you can take your money, finish your drink, and go back to your rooms for the rest of the night. And when you wake up, you continue on to Tombstone. Or, you can go for that gun," the sheriff told him. He didn't even look down, though.

Whatever the traveler saw in the sheriff's eyes, it doused any lingering resentment on his part. "He gives us our money back," he said gruffly, "we'd be willing to grant his sorry mutie ass a pardon."

"Do it, Jason," the sheriff said.

The young man pouted as he counted out two piles of gold coins and pushed them into the center of the table. His hands darted back as one of the other man tried to grab his wrist. The man settled for his money instead.

"Jason, go home."

"When my mother hears about this, you'll be sorry!"

"Oh, so she's your mother when you need something from her?" the sheriff asked, tired of his antics.

Jason grabbed his hat and stormed out of the bar.

The sheriff eased up on the two men and took his hands away. "You boys ready to call it a night?"

"Woulda been nice if someone coulda told us about the mutie card cheat!" the man who'd unwittingly folded a pair of aces complained loudly enough for anyone to hear.

"Some people won't enter a saloon that'll serve mutants," the sheriff said. "I'm sure they were just trying to do the barkeep a favor."

"Uh-HUH," the man growled as he rose from his chair and went upstairs without another word. His companion followed.

The sheriff sighed. "I hate this job," he muttered. "Cooper."

The bartender came over. "Thanks, Sheriff."

"Get me a whisky, and have someone keep an eye on our guests' rooms," the sheriff told him. "Just in case they decide having their money back ain't enough."

"Will do, sheriff. They won't see nothin' more tonight, if you catch my meanin'."

"I do," the sheriff said.

No one seemed to notice as the sheriff became over a foot shorter. And that wasn't even close to the biggest change.

In the place of a mountain of a man, there stood a lithe, red-haired woman of average height and trim curves. The men's clothing was replaced by leather pants that fit snugly and a loose-fitting shirt. They couldn't disguise the fact that her skin was a rich shade of blue, or that her eyes were a golden yellow and had no pupils. The only thing that didn't change was her cowboy hat, which she set on the bar as she took a stool.

"Here you go, Sheriff," Cooper said as he set a small glass in front of her and filled it. "So," he added, "I hear I got mighty loyal customers in here. Not wanting strangers to know I'm willing to take money from mutants and pour them a drink, I mean."

"You _are_ the only bar in town, Coop."

"Yeah, but if I didn't serve mutants, there wouldn't be any bar in town, because I'd lose ninety percent of my customers."

She grinned, then took the shot and drank it with one motion. "Jason keeps pulling crap like that," she said, her lips curving downward once more, "and I'll have to do something a mite - drastic."

The doors banged open. "Sheriff Raven Darkholme!"

"Speaking of drastic," the barkeep murmured as he wisely backed away.

"Emma," Raven drawled.

Clad in a white dress that was too nice and too new to have been made by the town's seamstress, the blonde woman who'd just barged into the saloon stalked toward the bar where the sheriff sat. "Don't you Emma me," she said icily. In no way did her anger detract from her aristocratic bearing. She was rich, and she was used to being rich. "I am this town's mayor, and as such you work for ME."

Raven sighed again. "Mayor Frost, then," she said.

"Jason tells me you humiliated him in front of the entire saloon!"

"_Jason_ was swindling a couple of boys passing through with his powers again, Mayor," the sheriff replied. "Again, as in like the last five times. I thought you told me you were going to do something about that."

Mayor Emma Frost lowered her voice slightly. "He didn't mention that," she said.

"No, I expect he didn't."

"Still, you could have handled it better!"

"Please enlighten me, since you weren't in the room."

"He also said you mocked him!" Mayor Frost said hotly. "You made disparaging remarks about his age and - "

"Is he in a jail cell?" Raven interrupted.

"You know perfectly well he isn't."

"Then how the hell else am I supposed to punish him? He's swindling people outta their money, Mayor."

"It's not against the law," Emma muttered.

"The government says otherwise, Mayor. 'No mutant shall use his or her power to commit a crime in such a way as to circumvent the law and/or avoid prosecution.' You've memorized the law, same as me. It means your boy's still cheatin' even if he ain't dealing from the bottom of the deck or hiding aces up his sleeve."

"I don't recall seeing 'cheating at cards' on the books as a criminal offense!" the mayor snapped.

"It is in the West!" Raven retorted. "Otherwise, people are going to take the law into their own hands. People get awful funny about things like being cheated out of their money."

"Is that supposed to be a veiled insult?" Emma asked dangerously.

Raven settled back in her seat. "Why no, Emma. When I insult you, everyone will know it," she said quietly.

Emma Frost folded her arms and tapped her foot on the floorboards. She'd been the richest woman in town from the moment she helped found Amazing after the war by virtue of her marriage to her now-deceased husband Sebastian. She'd stayed that way with her business dealings, mainly in cattle and land speculation. While she had a reputation for being abrasive and cold, qualities not often associated with politicians, the town had re-elected her as mayor because she was smart as a whip and a fierce protector of their little town.

They had NOT voted for her because she used her formidable mental powers - her mind, besides being brilliant, could also make a person see or do virtually anything, courtesy of her mutation - to _make_ them vote for her. Folks in Amazing knew she wouldn't wield her mind as a weapon against them, either in politics or business. They knew she didn't even need to. She drove a hard bargain, talked rings around people, and reduced grown men to tears in an argument with her vicious tongue.

Raven looked at Emma and sighed again. Unlike Emma, Jason had tried to use his powers against the people of Amazing. For that, he was not respected while she was. However, Raven was quite certain that the mayor was willing to use her powers against the ordinary men who ran the banks and brokerages in New York and San Francisco, the stockyards in Chicago and Dallas, and her competitors all over the West. She cheated them to increase her holdings. All for a good cause, of course - she donated a portion of her income to support her town.

Never mind her good intentions, though. She used her powers to swindle men if she chose. That, Raven suspected, was why Emma had failed to rein Jason in. If it was good enough for the goose, Jason probably thought, it was good enough for the gander.

"Well?"

Raven was woken from her reverie. "I'm sorry, I was waiting for you to respond," the sheriff said, snapping her fingers. Cooper poured her another drink.

The shot glass slid across the bar without anyone touching the glass. It fit snugly into Emma's waiting fingers. "Thank you, Cooper," the mayor said sardonically, raising the glass to her lips.

Mind over matter. Yet another of the mayor's abilities. "By your silence," Raven went on, "I assume we're finished here. I'll just mosey on back - "

"You'll mosey on to my home and apologize to Jason," Emma snapped.

"Careful, Ms. Frost. People will start to think you're the law in this town, not me. Don't think that's why you pinned this star on," Raven replied, fingering her badge.

A growling noise emanated from the bottom of Emma's neck. God, the woman could be a bigger pain in the ass than all the humans put together, Raven thought.

The pleasant discussion, which the entire saloon had heard even as they tried to busy themselves with other activities, was interrupted by yet another appearance by Deputy Rose. "Begging your pardon, Sheriff," she said, "but we got a little problem."

Raven stretched as she stood up. "If you'll excuse me, Mayor," she said cheerfully, "since I won't be arresting anyone tonight, I've got an emergency to tend to."

"I expect you in my home tomorrow," Emma shot back.

"Why? Will your boy be turning himself in then?"

The mayor glared at the back of Raven's head as she sauntered out. Like the now-empty glass, the whiskey bottle slid across the bar on its own, stopping nearby. Only when she picked the bottle up and poured herself another shot did Emma actually lift a finger.

"Thanks for the rescue, depity," Raven drawled.

"Don't thank me, sheriff. There's a real situation at the telegraph office. Looks like we can't git no telegraphs from the west, or send them neither."

The sheriff frowned. "What about from the east?"

"No problem. Sent a message to Tombstone, the reply came lickety-split."

"Hm. _Nothing_ from the west?"

"He's trying every town west of here. Should be able to find where the holdup is."

Raven nodded. "Or maybe you want to do a little checking for me?"

Rose shrugged. "I kin make myself available."

"Then get the helmet from the office and move your tail out there," the sheriff told her.

Her deputy smiled and ran off.

Raven watched her go for a moment, and then glanced through the general store window to her left. For a moment she thought she'd looked into a mirror. She shook her head, already knowing who she'd seen. She hesitated, then went in.

"Evenin', sheriff," the storekeeper said. "What can I do you for?"

"Just letting you know, Jenkins. There's a problem with the telegraph, and we won't be getting any messages from California for a little while."

Jenkins shrugged. "I'm closing up in a moment anyway." He deftly packed the remaining few purchases into one of two leather saddlebags.

"Yeah, I thought you were open later than usual," Raven said. "I forgot you made an exception this time of month." For the first time she looked at the store's only other occupant. "Evenin', miss," she said, tapping the brim of her hat.

The woman sniffed. "Human," she replied, taking her purchases and casting some coins onto the countertop with a few blue fingers that more resembled talons. "The usual amount," she added, looking at the storekeeper.

"Ayuh, that'll do," he said, sweeping the coins into his cupped palm.

The late customer turned without another word for the sheriff and stalked out the back entrance. Her untamed red hair flew as she turned her head in a brilliant flash of color, and her departure made a strange sound as her tail swished across the floor.

"Always a pleasure," the sheriff murmured.

"Don't think she likes you much," Jenkins said.

"I don't reckon she likes people in general," Raven replied. "At least she doesn't differ between mutants and regular folk. She hates 'em all the same."

The nameless female had made her displeasure known the last time someone had assumed (wrongly, evidently) that she was one of those "special" humans the smarty-pants scientists back East called "mutants". There _were_ creatures in the world that seemed to exist outside of both humanity and other beasts, and she apparently was one of them.

"Yeah, but she _really_ don't like you, sheriff. I think it's your colorin'. She probably thinks you're stealing from her."

Raven shook her head. "I looked like this long before I met her."

"Ya think that matters to her?"

"Probably not," the sheriff muttered. "G'night."

She stepped outside and headed for her office. She found Rose there with a miner's helmet strapped to her head. The deputy tapped a switch, and the headlamp on her helmet switched on, casting a dim light. "You ready?" she asked Rose.

Rose looked in the mirror and tucked her white forelock under her helmet. "Yep," she said. "I'll head west and see what's wrong."

"Try not to get seen," Raven reminded her.

"Thanks for carin', shugah," Rose replied as she headed out.

Raven watched her stop in the middle of the street. Her feet left the dirt as she flew into the sky.

Amazing, Arizona. Population of several hundred. Mostly mutant, but once you got used to the powers, it was mostly boring. Nice work if you were a sheriff who preferred to leave her gun in the holster.

She sat back down, waiting for either of her deputies to return, and picked up where she'd left off earlier, rolling tobacco.

To be continued . . .


	3. Chapter Two

Title: Amazing, Arizona (2/??)  
Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.  
Rating: R

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Chapter 2

Rose Wagner, currently one of two sworn deputies for the town of Amazing, Arizona, had always been an odd girl. She was struck by lightning at the age of six, and the only lasting effect was the white it put in her hair.

When she was seven, she lifted the heavy wooden table in the kitchen - with one hand, no less - when one of her toys rolled underneath.

When she was nine, she rescued her cat from a tree by flying up to the branch he was clinging to.

Her father, an ordained minister who preached in their hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, believed the Lord himself had bestowed these powers upon her with his lightning bolt from the heavens. Undoubtedly she would do great things.

Her grandfather on her mother's side, himself a preacher, believed that the Devil lived in her body, and that the lightning bolt had been an attempt to drive Satan out. Obviously, however, evil had too strong a grip on her soul.

Her mother sighed and reminded her not to use her abilities in front of people unless they were close relations or slaves.

Rose heard of mutants as she got older. But she didn't think of herself as one. Daddy said she was blessed by God, and that was fine with her.

Until 1864, when a cannonball fired by the damnyankees and the true Devil, General Sherman, knocked her through both walls of her Atlanta home. Her clothes didn't survive, but she walked away without a scratch.

It was then that Rose began to wonder if perhaps she'd had powers BEFORE being struck by lightning - if perhaps they were the REASON she'd lived.

She'd also wondered - had she known sooner, could she have, in some small way, changed the course of the War? Woman or not, she could fly, she could survive a direct hit from artillery, and she was stronger than seven men combined.

After the Confederacy's bitter defeat, Rose had read about the mutants who belonged to Quantrill's Raiders out west. The Yankees couldn't do much about them either, and it didn't change a goddamn thing. It made her feel better. A little.

Currently, however, she wasn't in the South. She was in the Wild West, and she could fly all she liked. Right now, she was investigating downed telegraph lines, and the coal miner's helmet on her head was the only thing keeping her on a straight line in the pitch black darkness. Even the stars seemed dim tonight.

A problem with the telegraph wasn't necessary the first sign of the apocalypse. But Indians were known to wreck telegraph lines when they were on the warpath. It was Rose's job to make sure the Apache wasn't heading toward Amazing with rage in their hearts.

She'd already passed two towns - both time turning her headlamp off, so as not to draw attention. There were a lot of rumors about Amazing floating around this part of Arizona, but no one guessed that the population was almost entirely mutant. Better not to create more rumors. Both towns were at peace, and still no problems sighted with the wires.

She'd turn around before she reached the California border. Problems in California were no concern of hers. That was over an hour away though, even at her flying speed. And there were more towns in between. Right now, however, the only thing she'd seen between the towns was a lone train heading east.

That and . . . a fire?

Rose's eyes widened as she turned off her helmet light. She didn't think she'd need it. It was just a spark from here, but a spark in the distance was usually a lot bigger up close.

Two minutes later, she was proved right as she landed in the devastation that used to be the town of Featherston, Arizona.

_Apache_, she first thought to herself as she walked silently past buildings that were either gutted, still burning, or just knocked to the ground. Bodies were hanging out of windows.

The thing was, nobody seemed to have any arrows sticking out of them. Plenty of Apaches used guns nowadays, but the era of the bow and arrow had not yet passed. Some of these people should have been riddled with arrows.

_Yankees_, she instinctively guessed. She'd seen Union troops burn homes and farms to the ground, make it look like no one had ever lived there, in the lean years after the War. They'd been greedy monsters, and when four men in blue had thought a lone Southern woman was a chance for fun, they'd been lucky to be alive when she was through with them. Yep, the luck had been theirs. Their testimony had sent her running (or flying) West.

But the damnyankees wouldn't have done this. It made no sense at all. The War was long over, and the troops were too busy hunting Injuns to harass law-abiding folk.

The most likely culprit, she concluded as she reached the other end of the main street, was outlaws. A gang, maybe thirty or more, swept in, plundered the town for all it was worth, and then - rode off?

Even as she grew convinced that this was the work of outlaws, there were things that still bothered her. There weren't nearly enough horse tracks to suggest a large gang of men on horseback had swept through. And very few people had been shot. Covering her mouth and nose, Rose checked some of the bodies and found they'd been bludgeoned, strangled, even BITTEN - but not shot. Did the men have dogs with them? Were they especially sadistic men who wanted their victims to die painfully?

And where had they come from? Where had they GONE? The only thing she'd seen between here and Amazing was . . .

She realized why there were no horse tracks. The men had arrived by _train_.

Turning, Rose flew into the air and headed east as fast as she could.

* * *

"Why the hell we're on this fuckin' train instead of back in that town," Striker muttered as he paced.

"Calm down, Striker," a man said as he played cards with Wolf and Whale. He turned and looked at the other man. He grinned, and flicked a pointed tongue through his teeth. "Have a seat."

Wolf and Whale roared with laughter.

"Fuck you!" Striker snarled. His coat billowed as if a wind had blown through the train car.

Like a snake, a long tendril darted out from behind Striker and squirted a hot, corrosive liquid all over the table, ruining playing cards and scarring gold coins. A few drops hit Wolf as he leapt backwards, and he yelped as the acid bit into his pelt.

"What the fuck's your problem?!" Whale spat, hardly able to move his massive bulk in the small (for him) car and glad the acid hadn't hit him.

"You _know_ what his fuckin' problem is," Forktongue said before Striker couldn't answer. "He's just a goddamn scorpion, and everybody knows you can't trust no scorpion."

Striker flung off his coat, revealing the scorpion's stinger that grew out of his back. Obviously his tail prevented him from sitting down like normal people. The tip dripped poison as it hovered over Striker's head, but the acid just rolled off his shoulder and hit the floor, where it bubbled. "Who'd trust a snake like you?" he retorted.

"I ain't no snake," Forktongue shot back. "I'm somethin' greater than an ordinary rattler."

"Right," Striker drawled. "Big special 'naga', can turn into a man and back again. Well, lah-dee-dah. So you can look like a man. Who the hell don't?"

"Without that coat, you," Forktongue sneered.

Striker drew his revolver and pointed it at Forktongue's head. "Don't think I won't pull the trigger," he hissed.

"Sure," Forktongue said, bored. "Y'all don't need me to take Tombstone."

"You're damn right we don't need you," Striker swore.

Before Striker knew it, Forktongue whirled about and grew several feet in length. A shot rang out, but it bounced off the naga's scales as he reared his serpentine head. "Well, if y'all don't need me," it said, "then we sure asss hell don't need you, insssect!"

"Hey, how about we all just settle down?" Wolf asked. One of his heads stared unblinkingly at Forktongue, while the other watched Striker. "No need to go trying to kill each other. We all know it can't be done anyway."

"Huh, he's right about that," Striker said.

"And I don't trust any of you, so just forget that word, okay?" Wolf added. "You two are just pissed because Striker wanted to leave as soon as we could, and Forktongue wanted to stay until everyone was dead."

"I didn't get enough to eat," Whale grumbled.

"Shove it, Whale," Forktongue growled, his serpent's head morphing into a human one. "How 'bout we compromise? Lessus take turns. Next town, we stay the night, enjoy the women before we kill 'em, that kind of thing. Town after that, we'll kill 'em, take their things, and go. And we can jest al-ter-nate after that. That all right with you, Striker?"

His scorpion's tail trembled, but Striker tossed his head. "Fine. Let's just get to Tombstone before 1880, okay?"

"Good," the naga said. "Well, since the game's finished for tonight, I'm going up to the engine and checking on Palmetto. He sure was happier than a pig in shit about playing engineer."

"It's 'cause he's insane, Forktongue," Striker said.

"That just makes 'im deadlier," Forktongue replied.

"Got that right," Whale chuckled.

* * *

Rose pulled away from the train car and hovered in midair, allowing the train to pull away a little. She was too shocked to do anything for a moment.

"The Charnel House Gang!" she whispered. "I gotta warn 'em!"

As she flew high above the train, she did a little math in her head. Amazing was three towns down the line. If the Gang was going to spend a little extra time in every other town, that meant that not even the people in the farms and ranches surrounding the town were safe. They were going to have to run NOW.

But there were two towns in even graver danger, and she headed for the closest one first. She was so alarmed that she lost all consideration of caution. When she landed in the town five minutes later, she landed right in the middle of the street. It was late and most people were in bed, but a few men saw and pointed.

"Sheriff," Rose demanded as she approached two of them. "Where is he?!"

One finally pointed left. "Down the street, mutie," he grunted.

Rose suddenly realized what she'd done. "Thanks," she said before running in the direction he'd gestured.

* * *

Raven yawned as she sat on the small bed in her spartan rooms. Her clothes vanished as they melted into her body. Her hat had been the only article of clothing she'd ever worn, except for the rare occasion she'd strapped on her gunbelt since becoming sheriff of Amazing.

Carefully she reached over and picked up a small framed glass on a table. It was an Ambrotype of a attractive young woman smiling, not at the person taking the picture, but at a point over that person's shoulder.

She ran a thumb over the image. "Irene," she breathed. "If only you were here. You'd know what to do about the mayor and her brat. STEPbrat, I mean." She kissed the glass gently and set it back down.

Then Raven lay back and waited for sleep. There would be dreams of death, no doubt. What she never knew was WHOSE death she might see, and WHO would be responsible?

Well, that wasn't entirely accurate, was it? In the end, the woman she used to be was _alway_s responsible.

"Mystique," Raven murmured as she closed her eyes.

Her eyes leapt open again as someone pounded hard on her door.

Raven grumbled as she shifted back into her "clothes". She didn't bother with boots as she stood up and padded over to her door. "What the hell is it now?" she growled as she opened the door.

"It's bad, Sheriff! Real bad," the young man said, shaking all over. The night operator at the train station and telegraph office, she realized.

"Easy, Jim. What's this?"

He shoved a telegram into her hands. "It came from Redrock," he said, referring to the closest town to the west. "Read it!"

She lowered her golden eyes and read what the paper said.

TOWN OF FEATHERSTON RAZED STOP CHARNEL HOUSE GANG STOP RIDING STOLEN TRAIN EAST TOWARD TOMBSTONE STOP INTEND TO ATTACK EVERY STOP ALONG THE WAY STOP CALL OUT NEAREST GARRISON STOP ALL CIVILIANS TAKE COVER STOP

Raven dropped the telegram, then caught it before it fell far, crinkling the message. "Shit," she whispered.

"I gotta take this to the mayor," Jim said, his voice shaking. "Sheriff, what're we going to do?"

She gave it back to him slowly, her vision swimming. It couldn't be - not them. "I don't know," she muttered. "Guess we'll tell the mayor together." Boots appeared on her feet now. "And then - I don't know."

Raven grabbed her hat. She had a sick feeling in her stomach, one that no amount of shapeshifting would cure.

* * *

"This can't be good," Mayor Frost said upon opening the door.

"Howdy, mayor," the man towering over her said.

"We've got a serious situation here, Emma," Raven said as she pushed past her other deputy, Waylon. "Can we come in?" She took the telegram from Jim and pushed him away. "And you stay by that telegraph and let us know if we hear anything from Tombstone."

"Y-yes, ma'am," he gulped.

"And don't tell nobody nothin', hear me?" Raven added, grabbing his shoulder. "No panic in my town."

He nodded and ran for the telegraph office.

"Well," Emma said. "I think I need a drink. Care for one?"

"Thankee, ma'am," Waylon rasped.

"Not right now, Emma," Raven said.

Her silk nightgown and robe glimmered as the mayor turned and went back inside.

Waylon lowered his head as he entered the Frost house, naturally the biggest in Amazing. Even her front door wasn't big enough for him to enter without ducking, though. He was the biggest person in town. Waylon Jones was a Southerner like Rose, and almost as strong as her, but he'd come from the swamps of Florida, rather than the city in Georgia. And while Rose looked no different from other women her age, Waylon would always stand out in a crowd. Instead of skin, he had a thick, green hide with ridges along his back. When he smiled, people saw large gaps between razor-sharp teeth.

In effect, he looked very much the alligators he claimed to have wrestled, killed, and eaten at one time. He wasn't very bright, but like a gator he had good instincts and a sly, animal cunning that enabled him to sniff out opportunities and weaknesses. If someone tried to hide something from him, chances were he'd smell it. All in all, Raven was glad he preferred being deputy to being an outlaw.

Emma poured herself a whiskey and floated the glass over to Waylon, who took it gingerly with his scaly hands. He knocked it back quickly. "That's a lot finer than what they serve at the saloon," he rumbled.

"Only you could drink that as quickly as you did and not make a face, deputy," Emma murmured as she poured a second drink and sipped carefully. "So what's the problem? Apache?"

"Worse, Emma," Raven said. "We got a telegram. Looks like the Charnel House Gang is riding a stolen train in our direction."

Emma dropped her glass much as Raven had dropped the telegram. Like Raven she caught it before it hit the floor, only she did it with her mind. "My goodness," she said. "You can't be serious."

"Deadly serious, Mayor," Raven replied, handing her the telegram. "I sent Rose west earlier because of telegraph problems up that way. My guess is, she got to Featherston, saw what happened - maybe even saw the Gang there - and notified the sheriff in the next town over. They must be wiring every town between there and Tombstone."

"Every stop on the line," Emma muttered. "I can't believe this."

"Aunt Emma?"

The three adults turned. "Go back to bed, Crystal," Emma said quietly to the girl in the doorway. "This is town business."

The teenager hesitated. Like Waylon she was the kind of mutant who could never blend in. Her skin and hair were a shade of blue so light it was almost silver. "Is anything wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing to worry about 'til the morn'," Raven said. "Listen to your aunt and go back to bed."

Crystal ducked her head. "Sorry, sheriff," she mumbled before leaving.

Emma sighed. "Maybe we shouldn't have sent her back to bed. Maybe what we need to do is get everyone from their beds and organize a response to this."

"They won't be here until at least tomorrow night," Raven said.

"And you know this how?"

"There are two things slowing them down - Redrock and Milton. They're going to hit those towns first. I reckon they'll be so fat and lickered up after they take what they want in Milton, they'll sleep for hours. They're animals at heart, after all."

"And you would know?" Emma asked.

Raven shrugged uncomfortably. "I saw them once, five years ago. Town south of Tulsa. I watched them kill two men. They're animals, Mayor."

"The fact that they're animals doesn't exactly reassure me," Emma said. "Sounds like you know the Gang better than anyone else in this town. Maybe you should describe to the townspeople just what kind of a danger we're dealing with. Still, we need every minute we have. You don't expect us to just go back to sleep!"

"Us? No. I reckon we're going to be up all night and all day tomorrow too. But there's no point pulling people out of their beds now. They'll be tired and they won't be thinkin' straight, and they're liable to panic." Raven scuffed the floor with the toe of her boot. "We can organize 'em better in the morning, once WE'RE organized."

"And what do you suggest we do first?" Emma asked.

Raven crossed her arms. "Nobody's going to come to our rescue," she said. "The government has taken the Gang on more than once, and the Gang is still goin' strong. If they send the cavalry out, the Gang'll eat 'em alive. The smart thing to do, if I was the territorial governor? First I'd notify the folks in California and ask if men can be sent east to cut off the Gang from behind. Then I'd pull every available soldier in Arizona back to Tombstone, and wait for the Gang to arrive. Better to fight the Gang defensively, and the mines at Tombstone are the only things in this area worth saving, 'cept for a few people who'll probably die anyway no matter what the army does."

"I agree," Emma replied after a moment, "but what does that have to do with the question I asked you?"

"You ast me what we do first. I'm reminding you that the only people who have a decision about whether we live or die are the people of this town, and the killers on that train. So we gotta decide. Decide whether we run . . . or fight."

To be continued . . .

(Author's Note – Redrock, Milton, and Featherston are all the names of fictitious Arizona towns.)


	4. Chapter Three

Title: Amazing, Arizona (3)  
Name: Allaine  
Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.  
Rating: R  
Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Chapter 3

For a moment, the only sound was of Waylon cracking his neck muscles.

"You're out of your mind," Emma finally said. "You can't possibly expect us to fight them."

"It's just the five," Waylon grunted.

"Yes, and as I recall, the last time they took on the United States Army, the Army _lost_."

"It was only thirty or so cavalry," Raven said. "And they lose to the Injuns all the time too."

"Indians is a completely different story," Emma replied angrily. "_Indians_ attack in large numbers, shoot you full of arrows, and then ride away before you can hit back. The Charnel House Gang - named, I might remind you, after a building where CORPSES are kept - gives you a slow death, stays to watch, and then walks away. They walk, my dear sheriff, because no one ever dares to PURSUE them."

"I don't see that we have much choice, mayor."

"Much choice! How about we evacuate the town first of all?"

"They're gonna do the same damn thing at Redrock and Milton. And every time those boys stop at a ghost town, they're just gonna get madder and madder. What if the hornet's nest blows at our stop, and they search every ranch and box canyon until we're all dead?"

"That sounds like a pretty big IF, Sheriff, compared to staying and dying for certain," Emma retorted.

"We're not ordinary people, Emma," Raven murmured. "Between me, you, Jones here, and Rose, the four of us - "

"Are still outnumbered," Emma interrupted. "And I'm not much of a fighter. AND if the three of you want to stay behind and provoke a meeting with certain doom, don't think I won't stop you. Like I told you, the three of you answer to ME."

"Well, if we DIE, I reckon we won't have to listen to you no more," Raven shot back. "Fact is, the devils in Hell sound like a peach compared to working for you."

Emma glared at her. "I am trying to save the people of this town! So should you!"

"I'm trying to save the people AND the town. That's my job. And I say it can be done."

"Because we're not ordinary," Emma parroted. "We're mutants. Never mind that most people in this town are the 'colors of the rainbow' variety."

Raven privately acknowledged she had a point. Despite the claims that all mutants were a source of immeasurable danger to others, most mutants were no more menacing than regular folk. People with harmless mutations like outlandish skin color were known among their kind as "colors of the rainbow". Having bright green skin wasn't very useful. In fact it was a curse, announcing to the whole world that you were a mutant, and therefore not to be trusted or even approached.

Hence the need for a town like Amazing, where mutants were allowed to live the lives they'd been denied by the prejudice of humanity. Here one could be the shopkeeper or farmer that one always wanted to be, but for the stares and threats of small-minded morons.

"The children and elderly should leave come morning," Raven said. "But the able-bodied men can at least aim and fire a rifle."

"I was under the impression bullets weren't any good against these creatures," Emma pointed out.

"You can't kill 'em with bullets, but it does sting a little."

"How nice," Emma said dryly.

Raven sighed. "Look, how about we figure out mobilizin' the townsfolk come morning? We've got a little time, but not much. No matter what happens, you WILL admit we could use more time?"

Emma nodded. "Do whatever you have to."

"Waylon," Raven said, finally looking at her deputy.

"Sheriff."

"As soon as Deputy Rose comes back, I want the two of you to go out to the railroad and create a few - obstacles."

"We can rip the tracks up right nice," he agreed.

"No!" she said quickly. "Don't damage the rails. Just get some boulders and such, put 'em on the tracks. I want them to have to stop the train over and over again, clearing debris."

"Rendering the rails useless for travel would be simpler," Emma said.

"Yeah, but they'll just keep coming on foot," Raven replied. "And then we won't know when they're coming, or from which direction. If we hear the train, we'll be ready. Waylon, you'll go at first light . . . no, better yet, start now."

"Won't be able to see a damn thing, sheriff," he said.

"I know. Go to the Selton ranch, tell 'em we need the twins. Tell 'em I'll explain everything, but that it's awful important," Raven said.

"The Selton girls aren't even twenty, Raven," Emma remonstrated.

"You know anyone else in town who can light up the dark real good, you tell me," Raven growled.

Emma bit her lip. Claire and Angelica Selton were fraternal twins with identical powers - the ability to create and direct fires. And the sheriff was right, no one else had a similar power. Sure, someone could accompany them with a lantern or some such thing, but it wouldn't be anywhere near as effective. And it wasn't like the girls would be placed in any danger. "All right, do it," she agreed.

"I'll send Rose after you when she comes back," Raven told Waylon. "I figger she'll be able to spot you out there."

"Prob'ly," he said, grinning.

"You need to harass MY deputy further, or can he leave?" Raven asked Emma.

"I can harass YOU plenty," Emma retorted. "Go about your business, Deputy."

"Mayor," he said, putting his hat back on. "Sheriff. What if we run into Injuns?"

"Get the girls the hell out of there," Raven said. "No matter how much you want to wrassle five braves at once."

"Shucks," he muttered as he left.

When they were finally alone (not counting the mayor's niece and stepson, who were undoubtedly listening for what scraps of conversation they could get in their bedrooms), Raven grabbed her hat and squeezed the brim. "I don't know why I'm still here," Raven growled. "You're just going to wring your hands and act like an old woman."

"I'm younger than you, I'll remind you," Emma shot back.

"You're not actin' like it."

"A few wooden buildings don't matter to me like the people in this town, Raven!"

"I told you, I've SEEN the Charnel House Gang," Raven said. "If they find a ghost town, they're not going to settle for razing it to the ground. They won't leave until they've looked at every ranch, every farm, every cave and nook and conceivable hiding place we could be. And then they'll rape us and kill us until there ain't no more."

"You seem to know 'em pretty well," Emma finally replied.

"You know who I used to be," Raven muttered. "That was why you hired me. And I heard a lot of things in that life."

"Like what?"

"You'll hear about it tomorrow with the rest of 'em," Raven said as she shoved her hat back onto her head.

Emma's cheeks turned red, which meant from personal experience that she was either extremely angry or wanting a fucking. Somehow Raven doubted it was the latter. "Damn it, you're going to stand there, and you're going to tell me what I want to know, and then we're going to talk about first!"

"And at the end, I'm supposed to agree with you."

"That's the idea, yes."

"Then I don't see the point. See you in the morn', Mayor."

Raven opened the front door, but the door was ripped from her grasp and closed by an unseen force.

"I may not be able to read your mind, Mystique, but that doesn't mean I can't stop you from walking out of here until I'm good and ready."

The sheriff stood there quietly, taking a moment. "I don't like you using that name," she said.

"And I don't like you treating me like my opinion doesn't count for shit!"

"Neither do I. Just because you're Mayor Frost don't mean you're automatically right. So, unless we're both willing to listen to each other, there's no point jawin'."

Emma folded her arms. "The whole point of this town was to keep mutants like us from dying, Raven. You going up against the Gang sounds an awful lot like mutants dying."

"I don't know whether I should be touched you care about me, or offended that you think we have so little chance," Raven replied. She looked at her feet for a moment. "We'll talk more tomorrow. I gots things to see to. Look," she said as Emma opened her mouth, "if nobody wants to fight tomorrow, then I'll go too. Someone's got to lead them," she added, grinning.

The mayor turned away. "Guess that's all I'm going to get out of a notorious former gunslinger like yourself. Everyone knows what stubborn and heartless people you can be."

"Unlike ruthless cattle baronesses," Raven said dryly.

"Exactly," Emma agreed. She sighed. "When you encourage everyone to stay and fight, I would advise coming up with more than having the people pop away with rifles while the three of you do the dirty work. It can't be done."

"No, I reckon not," Raven admitted. "Which is why I'd better go. Got people to see."

She opened the door, and this time Emma didn't stop her.

Once Raven closed the door behind her, she rubbed her forehead. Sleeping with that woman had become intolerable once she'd gotten to know her.

Inside, meanwhile, Emma was moving slowly toward her desk to retrieve some papers when she was once more disturbed. "I heard some of what you said," Crystal said as she came back in. "Is it true? Are these people going to destroy everything?"

"You shouldn't eavesdrop," Emma said absently.

"You said no more bad things were - "

"No one is going to die," Emma replied, knowing what Crystal was feeling. She'd been the girl's adopted mother since her sister passed away, and that had been six long years ago. Dead because she was a mutant, of course. Just as Crystal was a mutant, and one who couldn't pass as a regular human thanks to her ice-blue skin and freezing abilities. Emma and her sister had not been particularly close, but she never regretted taking Crystal as her charge. Without Emma, Crystal would have probably been yet another mutant to turn into a violent, human-hating outlaw, the kind they often became if they were hated first long enough.

The kind their sheriff had once been.

Emma took Crystal and pulled her into her arms, ignoring the touch of chill in the teenager's body. "None under my protection shall die," she murmured. "Hear me?"

Crystal nodded, but she thought of lurid stories Jason had retold about the Charnel House Gang's exploits during and after the War, and she shivered.

* * *

Jackrabbit, she thought as her fangs tore the bloody flesh from the bone, was an acquired taste. Or rather, one acquired the ability to stomach it. Still, wild animals were scarce in the area, what with Indians living nearby, and she would catch what she could before she was forced to supplement her diet with the foods purchased in the little town with its miserable, self-loathing rejects. Damaged goods.

But then, all humans were worthless, weren't they?

She tossed a leg bone aside, and the motion made her catch a movement at the mouth of her "roost". Slowly, in a manner that suggested the leisure of the mountain lion that stands as he spots his prey, she rose from her crouching position. She drew the pistol from her worn leather holster, and with the other hand took a well-polished mace from the wall.

Then she approached the entrance to her home. As she drew closer, she saw a dim spark, and realized that the earlier movement had been someone striking a match and lighting tobacco. The idea that someone might casually have a smoke while sitting outside - as if she were no danger, or worse, as if they didn't even know she was there - infuriated her.

Emerging from the cave, her glowing red eyes made it very easy for her to see the person sitting on her landing. She put the gun against the trespasser's head and said, "You can jump, or I can kick your bullet-ridden carcass over the side. I'd prefer the latter, but I'd rather not waste the ammunition."

"Good. Ammunition's somethin' precious 'round here, especially with what's coming," the other person said. He stood up and turned around. "Which is why I'm here," Raven added, taking off her hat.

The other female curled her lip with scorn. "The copy," she sneered as she took two steps back, keeping the gun between them.

"Lookee here," Raven said. "I don't know what gave you the idea that I wanted to 'be' you - "

"You're a shapeshifter, aren't you? Don't lie! The shopkeeper said you were."

Raven nodded. "Wasn't intendin' to lie. Been changing shape since I was a child."

"They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," the other woman replied. "As sincere as a human can be anyway."

"If I wanted to imitate you, I could do a damn better job than this." Raven dropped her hat and changed her look very swiftly. It wasn't that difficult, after all. As the creature had observed, they both had the same shade of hair and skin. And while blue skin and red hair was an eye-catching combination, it certainly wasn't a common one. So the creature could be forgiven for assuming that Raven had patterned her own look after her, when it was all a coincidence.

Although Raven had stopped believing in coincidence years ago. That didn't make her a believer in God, but now she saw purpose where before she had seen chance or luck.

"Like it?" Raven asked when she had finished. She was now a carbon copy of the woman standing before her. Her hair had grown longer, the locks tamed only by a gold circlet atop her brow. Her chaps had been replaced by a linen skirt that dropped between her legs, exposing an obscene amount of thigh. Her midriff was now bared, her shirt covering the bare minimum and one shoulder. Her boots were gone, revealing taloned feet.

Most striking were the wings, purple membranes held together by blue wing struts that grew out of her back. With wings like these, jumping no longer seemed a death sentence.

Best of all, when she spoke, she spoke with the creature's voice.

All of this shocked and angered the woman she was now most definitely copying. "I should shoot you right now," she snarled.

"Suddenly you got a problem with mutants too?"

The creature surprised Raven by laughing mockingly at her. "You humans truly are pathetic," she said contemptuously as she shook her head. "You focus on these stupid little differences. Colored, red, mutie. They don't matter. I don't have a problem with mutants, Sheriff. I have a problem with humans. Like you. Only I'd especially like to kill you because I don't like someone being able to steal my face."

Raven chuckled and resumed her old shape. "Most mutants, bein' called a human would be considered high praise indeed. And you won't shoot me. Shootin' an officer of the peace, that's a federal offense."

"I am not afraid of humans."

"You just want to be left alone, right? So you came to the farthest corner of the Arizona Territory to do it?" Raven guessed shrewdly. "With all them Injuns, betcha didn't count on no humans settling nearby. Especially muties like us. You'll have to find a new home mighty soon, I reckon, less you hear what I have to say."

The creature glared at her coldly. "What is that?" she asked.

"Mind if I intrude?" Raven replied, gesturing to the cave.

She snorted. "You wish to come into my parlor, little fly?"

"I've walked out of bigger traps than this, ma'am." Raven put her hat back on and sauntered inside. "What's your name, anyway? Callin' you 'Creature' like they do in Amazing doesn't strike me as real polite."

'Creature' brushed past her, rudely bumping Raven's shoulder, and threw more sticks into the fire. "The humans call me Demona," she muttered.

"Demona, huh?" Raven paused. "You know, there was a time when I heard that name once or twice."

"Come to arrest me?" Demona retorted. "I'm still wanted in a few states, I suppose. I killed my share in the crazy years after that damn war. You Americans, you can't even fight a war properly. In Europe they fight wars for decades. You couldn't even manage to kill yourselves for five years." She looked at Raven cunningly. "A mutant like yourself, I expect you killed a few yourself."

"Some," Raven allowed. "But I stopped."

"Why?"

"I don't see as how this matters to why I'm here," Raven said evasively. "We got trouble coming this way."

Demona shrugged. "The Army? Have the fools in Washington announced new anti-mutant laws?"

"Wouldn't surprise me, but no," Raven replied. "I 'spose you've heard of the Charnel House Gang?"

"Them?" Demona laughed. "They're coming? Oh, this I must see. They'll wipe you out, from what I hear."

Raven frowned. "What's your problem with humans anyway?"

Demona didn't laugh this time, but her evil smile only grew. "Now _that_ is an odd question, coming from a mutant."

"They're not all bad," Raven grumbled, looking down. "Didn't always believe that, but - "

"Then you're a fool!" Demona shot back. "Humans hate what they fear, and they fear _everything_ that doesn't look like them. Humans killed my kind! I am the last!"

"Last what?" Raven asked.

"Gargoyle," Demona said angrily. "See? My kind isn't even a memory for you people."

Raven slowly nodded. "Like the buffalo. Humans are real good at wipin' things out, I guess."

"Please," Demona sneered. "Don't bother. You're a human too. Other than your special ability, you're just like the rest. My only desire is to see humans - including you mutants - wiped from the face of the earth. If the Charnel House Gang is going to kill a few more, I say 'well done'. From what I hear, some of them aren't even human. Which means I have more in common with them than I do with your miserable little Amazing, Arizona."

Raven blew smoke out and dropped her rolled cigarette onto the floor, smashing it with her boot. "I'm guessin' asking for yer help would be a waste of time then."

"Help?"

"I'm going to fight 'em. So are my depities. Way I see it, with people like you, we got a real shot of driving 'em off, saving the people AND the town," Raven said. She looked around at her surroundings. "Town goes - well, you'll need to get yer supplies somewheres else. You got a nice setup here, big cave in the wall of a box canyon. Peoples can only approach from one direction in a box canyon, and then how're they gonna climb the rock face? I'd wager you smoothed these walls yourself. How you gonna move all this to a new place, Demona?"

"I'll manage," Demona retorted. "I've lived on my own for centuries. I only started buying from your town's store when I saw mutants like you working the land. I can certainly survive . . . if you don't," she added, her smile returning.

Raven shrugged. "Have it your way. Hope yer right. As I see it, when the Gang's gone and we're still here, you won't be welcome at the general store anyway." She turned to leave.

"Wait," Demona said suspiciously. "How did you know I was here? And how did you get up here?" She stopped. "Never mind. With your powers, I'm sure climbing is easy."

"As you say," Raven replied, grinning.

"And that evil-looking man," Demona realized. "The one who works for the storekeeper. He helped me bring supplies here the first time I went to your town." She bared her fangs. "I warned him - if he told anyone, I'd strangle him with his own entrails!"

"He didn't tell nobody," Raven said.

"Sure, protect your own. Maybe I'll come to your town, make sure he doesn't survive the coming apocalypse."

Raven chuckled. "He didn't tell nobody because he's me."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, when a strange lady with blue skin and red hair like mine, not to mention the wings and the tail, comes to our town outta the hills," Raven explained, "I'm bound to take a personal interest." She shifted shape again, this time becoming a short, squat man who looked as though he needed a bath, a shave, a half-dozen gold fillings, and a flea dip. "Looked like this when I wanted to blend in with the humans in the old days," "he" said in an oily baritone. "Ask around town if ya like - you won't find anybody who looks like me."

Demona scowled at the sheriff. "Enjoy fighting the Gang," she said. "I hope they give you the pain you deserve. Now get out."

Raven sighed and, resuming her natural form, headed out. "If it makes you feel better, I've already suffered plenty," she said over her shoulder.

"I'll feel better when I see you suffer," Demona jeered.

Sprouting wings even larger than Demona's, these covered with eagle feathers, Raven raised her hat slightly. "Much obliged, ma'am," she said sardonically as she leapt from the ledge outside Demona's cave. Using her wings, she glided downward in a circular pattern.

Watching her go, Demona turned her head and spat. "Go ahead," she murmured. "Stay and fight. More corpses for the Charnel House Gang. You fools can kill each other quicker than even I can."

To be continued . . .


	5. Chapter Four

Title: Amazing, Arizona (4)

Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.

Rating: R

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Chapter 4

"Is everyone here?" Raven asked, looking around the main thoroughfare of Amazing.

"Near abouts," Rose said behind her.

"Damn it, Deputy, I wanted everyone here for this. Who's missing?"

Rose shrugged. "Whadja expect? Ol' man Stagg, his daughter, and his two niggers."

The sheriff turned on Rose in a fury, and the deputy quailed. "Goddamn it, Rose, I told you never to use that fuckin' word!"

"I'm sorry, Sheriff!" Rose said quickly. "I didn' mean nothin' by it. You know I'm just a Southern girl at heart."

Raven pulled her aside. "You may say it outta habit, Rose, but when you call them black folks names for the same reason people like US get called names, it makes me wonder what you'd call someone with BLUE skin behind their back."

"Sheriff, no!" Rose said, horrified. "You know I've got nuthin' but respect fer you!"

"I reckon so," Raven allowed. "But this town's full of people with different color skin, and you've got to learn not to use language like that. I know I'm not the only one who feels the way I do. You think the mayor would appreciate it, seeing as how Crystal looks?"

Rose looked down at her boots. She couldn't remember the last time she felt lower. "I won't do it again," she mumbled.

"You'd better," Raven replied. Then she swore again. "Damn it, why isn't Stagg here then?"

"Said it warn't his concern."

"Oh, it'll be his concern when the Whale shows up and eats his entire herd of cattle in under an hour!" Raven said. "When we're through here, the first place I'm going is to Stagg's ranch."

"Speakin' of which," Rose said, "the folks are startin' to look a mite antsy."

"Yeah," Raven sighed. "They'll wish they still felt that way when I give 'em the news. I just hope some of them can still be brave."

Putting her hat back on, Sheriff Darkholme marched back out to where the townspeople had gathered. "Thanks for keepin' them orderly, preacher," she said.

"I'm just sorry we couldn't fit everyone inside my church, Sheriff," Reverend Kurt Warner replied. The German accent of his immigrant parents was nearly gone.

"It's okay," Raven said. "I'm going to need plenty of room. Why don't you join the rest?"

The Protestant minister nodded. With his mutation, he looked more like a blue devil than a preacher, and yet his soul was that of a holy man.

"Thanks for coming out so quickly," the sheriff said loudly to the assembled people. "I've got big news, and it can't wait."

"What's the situation, sheriff?" Mayor Frost asked, as if she didn't already know.

"Well, mayor, we got some bad news. It looks like the Charnel House Gang is in Arizona, and they're headed for Tombstone."

There were numerous gasps from the crowd as they began murmuring to each other.

"They're coming from the north," Raven added. "By train."

_That_ quieted the people in a hurry. "Along our rail line?" someone asked, his tone bleak.

Raven nodded. "Afraid so."

"But . . . they're going to Tombstone, you said," a woman said. "They're not going to bother with little ol' us, are they?"

"Maybe not," Raven said doubtfully, "but I reckon they might. They already done burned Featherston and killed lots of folks. Deputy Rose flew by their train last night, and she heard them planning to hit every station along the line."

There was no response from the crowd at first, and then it erupted in a cacophony of anxious talk and panicked cries. A few people even started to run back to their homes.

"Everyone, just calm down!" the sheriff called out, but no one seemed to pay her any mind.

"The sheriff said to stay calm and be QUIET!"

Emma Frost said that, not with her voice, but with her mind. Her telepathic cry froze everyone in their tracks, and they turned nervously towards her.

"Good," Emma sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "Now, the sheriff's had plenty of time to ponder the news, and she's got to have a plan. Right?"

"Plan? I got several, Mayor," Raven replied, tipping the brim of her hat briefly. "How's about everyone just save their questions for now and let me talk?"

"Please, sheriff," Reverend Warner said. "Share what you know with us, then."

Raven nodded. "We won't get no help from the government. They've done called every spare gun in Arizona back to Tombstone. Last time they went on the offensive against the Charnel House Gang, a lot of men lost their lives. This time they're taking the defensive. Small frys like us are going to have to take care of themselves." She paused. "When the Gang pulls into town, they're going to steal everything worth stealin', burn the rest, and kill anyone they find. I reckon the sensible thing to do is get everyone to safety, along with yer valuables and goods. That's what they're doin' in Milton and Redrock right now. They're hopin' the Gang won't move beyond the town limits."

"I got other ideas, though," she added.

"What ideas would that be, sheriff?" the reverend asked.

She hesitated. "If the Gang rides in and finds an empty town without anything worth lootin', they jest might get angry. They might be inclined to ride out to the farms and canyons, track down everything and everyONE worth killin' and takin'."

"We can't just stay here!" someone behind Reverend Warner burst out.

"No," Raven agreed. "The children and the old folks should go. So should all the valuables and goods. But . . . me and my deputies are staying. I'm hoping some of you will join us."

"You're crazy," Emma Frost said as most of the others exchanged shocked glances. "You're absolutely mad, thinking you can take them on by yourselves!"

"Are you sure that is wise, Sheriff Darkholme?" Warner asked cautiously. "These people - "

"They ain't people, reverend," Raven interrupted. "Don't mistake them. They're what we've been called all our lives - they're creatures and monsters. Devils, if you prefer. They ain't got no more appreciation for a human life than they do for the buzzin' fly."

The reverend coughed into his fist. "Devils, then. They have defeated men in many times their number. How can you hope to beat them with just three?"

"Those other men weren't like us," Raven pointed out. "Anyone here who's seen Rose or Waylon in a bar brawl knows what I'm talkin' about."

Waylon grinned behind her, revealing sharp teeth. Rose just folded her arms.

"And those other men weren't like any of you, either," the sheriff went on. "There's a lot of us here who can do real special things without needin' a gun or a knife. Like you, Mayor Frost," she said, looking at Emma.

"Someone needs to look after this town while you're off getting your skull crushed, Sheriff," Emma said coldly.

"We're not fighters, Raven," Reverend Warner murmured. "We're farmers and shopkeepers, and we came to get away from fighting, to live as normal people."

"Yeah, but the fightin's come to us now," Raven pointed out. "Look, I'm not here to badger you folks into helping. In fact, just in case there's some hothead out there who doesn't know what he's gettin' himself into, I want to show you all something." She took a few steps back, and her two deputies parted for her. "I saw the Gang near Tulsa once. I don't need no wanted posters to know what they look like, and what they do."

Without warning, the blue-skinned woman became a hard-looking man. And he had something coming out from his back. Several people gasped in fright.

"His name is Striker," Raven said, still in his shape, but using her voice. "Nobody knows what his real name is. Quantrill gave them all new names when they joined up with the Raiders during the war. Striker's their stalking horse. He'll come into town dressed so no one can see this." She gestured to the scorpion's tail that started at the small of her back. The evil-looking tip hovered above her head. "Scope the place out. If there ain't no significant government presence, he'll call in the others. Striker's the only one who wears a gun, but he'd rather use his tail. The poison'll kill anyone within a couple minutes, and it's uncommon fast. And he's got skin like a scorpion's shell - so tough bullets don't get past it."

"So it's true?" the reverend asked. "Some of these Gang members, they are immortal?"

"That ain't true," she told him. "I say they can die. What they can't do is die from a bullet. For one reason or another, bullets don't work too well on them. Six bullets to the chest might make 'em slow down, but it won't kill 'em."

Then she changed into something smaller, and a few people couldn't suppress cries of revulsion.

"This here's the Palmetto," Raven said. She was now only a few feet high, a misshapen body with unsightly bulges in her back and a very short, coarse bristle covering her body. She had teeth like needles, two short antennae coming out of her forehead, and eyes that swiveled crazily in their sockets, seemingly never looking in the same direction at the same time. "They say he'd been livin' in the Everglades out in Florida since Lord knows 'til the damn Seminole Injuns moved in and the Union troops came after them. Palmetto didn't like trespassers in those numbers, so he started killing everyone who moved through his hunting grounds. He's fast, he's got teeth and claws, and he's mighty insane. And," she added quietly, "he might be the immortal one."

"Immortal?" Emma asked. "How?"

"Well, Palmetto can be killed right easy enough, but they say he sheds his skin like a snake. Comes out lookin' good as new. It'd be better to just knock him unconscious, but that ain't so easy when there's four more of 'em."

Raven transformed a third time, and while this one drew no gasps, the townsfolk continued to look on with fascinated horror. "Wolf's got a hide thicker'n ten bears, I'd say," she said from two mouths filled with teeth. Wolf wasn't like any wolf anyone had seen. He stood upright on two legs, and he had a head for each leg. Both heads glared about with greed and hatred. He also had a shaggy pelt of white fur from heads to toes. "Awful fast, real mean, and likes the ladies, if you know what I mean."

"That's enough, Sheriff," Mayor Frost said quietly.

The sheriff stopped, startled, as she was about to change into Whale. She looked around and realized what the mayor had already seen. Nobody was going to come forward. That last line about Wolf's established desire for defenseless female flesh had pushed a shocked and frightened crowd over the edge. They'd seen beasts that seemed like something right out of Hell, and they weren't about to face them. "All right," she said, defeated. She changed back into her true form. "Forget it, then."

Mayor Frost nodded. "Everyone, we're going to evacuate the town."

There was an audible sigh of relief, and Raven turned away. Needing something to focus on while Frost told people what to do and where to go, she headed for her horse.

"Sheriff," Rose said, pursuing her.

"I'm goin' to Stagg's ranch," she told the deputy as she swung her leg up and over her horse's saddle. "Somebody's got to talk some sense into him. You stay here and help the Mayor."

"We can beat 'em," Rose said staunchly. "Even just us three."

Raven shrugged. "Maybe. But I'm running low on ideas."

Rose untied the horse's reins, and the sheriff rode off for Stagg's outlying property. "I got one or two, shugah," she said as she watched Raven go.

* * *

"Morning, Sheriff," the young woman said as Raven's horse came to a stop outside the farmhouse. "What brings you all the way out here?"

"Sapphire," Raven said politely as she dismounted. Sapphire Stagg was just twenty-three, and she lived out in the most remote corner of Amazing with just her father and the two Africans. Former slaves, Raven didn't doubt, but then many slaves remained with their owners after the practice was outlawed, either by choice or by force.

At any rate, the Staggs weren't mutants. They were simply Southerners who had withdrawn from postwar society and chosen this outpost to live out their lives. Raven just thought that Sapphire, despite being pretty and intelligent, was probably doomed to spinsterhood if she stayed out here all alone.

She'd be comfortable, anyway. Simon Stagg had a considerable herd of cattle, as well as rich farmland on which he grew wheat. Raven didn't know Arizona even HAD rich farmland, but Stagg produced bumper crops despite the brutal climate almost every year. Obviously he hadn't just picked this property on misanthropy alone.

"Was wonderin' if I might have a few words with you and your father," Raven continued. "The farmhands too, if you don't mind."

"Of course," Sapphire said. "Why don't you go on inside, and I'll fetch the others?" She hurried past the sheriff. "Ororo! Thomas!" She said nothing more, and only waved. Two small figures worked in the distance. One raised a hand - in greeting or understanding, Raven couldn't tell.

"I can give you a ride out to the fields," Raven suggested, "if - "

"They're deaf and dumb, not stupid, Sheriff," Sapphire told her. "They know what I mean. I don't need you to ride me out there."

"I reckon not," the sheriff muttered, a trifle embarrassed. Lord, what a tongue on that girl! Her father was fond of sharp words himself.

He was all politeness when she stepped inside and found him fanning himself, though. "Well, well. How does the day find you, Sheriff?" Simon Stagg asked, rising.

"Tolerable," Raven said, though her tone of voice suggested otherwise. "Deputy Rose tells me you decided not to come to the town meeting. I hope she expressed how important it was."

"She did," Stagg rumbled, "but I wasn't interested. No offense, ma'am."

"This town's in a whole heap of danger, Stagg," the sheriff warned him as she heard the door open behind her. "You don't know this because you weren't at the meeting, but the Charnel House Gang hijacked themselves a train, and they're headed right for us."

"The Charnel House Gang!" Sapphire blurted out, dismayed.

"Them's bad news," Stagg agreed. "They were all well and good when they fought for Dixie, but now they're just a plumb nuisance. Still, I don't see what I can do. I'm about as far from town as I can get without crossing deep into Indian country, so hidin' isn't something I need to worry about. Either they find me, or they don't. And you sure as hell can't fight them!" he added, chuckling.

Raven looked at him, then his daughter. Their two - servants, farmhands, whatever you called them - Ororo and Thomas were standing behind Sapphire. Ororo was in her mid-thirties, but her long hair had already turned pure white. From the Arizona sun, Raven supposed, although she'd never heard of an African's hair doing that in the sun before. Her younger brother Thomas was in his twenties, but he was taller than her by a good three inches. His hair would never turn white, because he was bald. Both wore a set of four interconnected metal rings around their necks. A tribal custom handed down by their ancestors, Stagg had said once, which they took back up after slavery ended and they had money of their own. Emma had found reference to such a practice in one of her encyclopedias, a practice which allegedly lengthened their necks, so Raven supposed it was true.

"Sapphire," Stagg said. "Tell Ororo to wait outside with the Sheriff's horse, would you?"

Sapphire nodded and began a series of what appeared to be rudimentary hand gestures. Ororo seemed to understand without difficulty, and she went back outside.

They didn't appear to be slaves. Stagg paid them, because on the infrequent trips Stagg made into town with his daughter, the Africans accompanied them and bought things at the general store with their own money. Still, Raven didn't know what to make of them.

Something in Raven's eye, the way she hadn't responded to Stagg's laughter, made him stare at her. "By God," he said. "You mean to fight, don't you?"

"A few of us are staying," she replied. "I think we've got a shot. Not much, but a shot."

"How many is a few?" Stagg asked.

"Me and my two deputies."

Stagg looked at her. "You're fools," he said. "The Union couldn't kill 'em during the war OR after it. What can the three of you do?"

"If you'd ever seen Rose take on a bullet without a scratch, you might not ask that question, Stagg," Raven said.

"And those cowards in town won't help?" he asked. He sneered. "But at least they came to your damn meeting."

Raven scowled at him. "I came to warn you," she said. "I don't want your help."

"Good, because we've got none to give."

"Father!" Sapphire said.

"Don't mind him, Sapphire," Raven said. "A few humans wouldn't help much anyway."

Stagg just went on smiling, like she was the world's biggest idiot. "Sorry, Simon," she thought, "but Emma's been thinking that for hours." But she just put her hat back on. "I apologize for troubling you," she said. "I hope you'll take precautions in case they DO show up."

"We've got our ways, Sheriff," he said. "I handled the damnyankees, and I'll handle anyone else who tries something with me."

"Mmm-hmm," she muttered as she went outside. Sapphire sent her a worried look as she passed.

Outside, Ororo indifferently handed her the reins of her horse. She nodded and headed back into the house.

Raven watched her go. A bunch of humans, and they were as strange as anyone in town.

* * *

The sheriff hadn't been gone for much more than an hour when she rode back into town, but as she approached the outskirts, a girl came running up to her. Her odd coloring immediately identified her as Crystal Frost. "Aunt Emma says you're to come directly to her house, Sheriff Darkholme," she said quickly.

"Great," Raven sighed. "Probably to chew me out for leaving."

"There's news, Sheriff," Crystal said, shaking her head. "From up north."

"North?" Raven asked. Either the telegraph lines had been repaired, which was pretty unlikely, or - news from one of the two towns between here and Featherston. "All right then. Thanks, Crystal."

Emma Frost's home wasn't far, and few people saw her. They seemed busy with something, but what kind of preparations they were making, she couldn't tell.

She knocked on the mayor's door a minute later. "Mayor?" she asked.

The door opened and Emma herself stood there, eyeing her coldly. "Sheriff," she said.

"Look, I'm sorry I left," Raven sighed. "But somebody had to tell the Stagg family, and besides, I was a little mad that he - "

"Forget it," Emma said. "Rose flew north to check on Milton and Redrock. Apparently the Charnel House Gang reached their next stop some hours ago."

Raven nodded. "Doesn't give us much time to - "

"Rose says they're butchering the townsfolk."

"Damn," Raven muttered. "After Rose warned them too. Probably because she was just a mutie."

"That's not what Rose saw," Emma told her. "She says she saw members of the Gang driving people in wagons INTO the town. Then they're unloading the people onto Main Street and killing them. The popular method appears to be one Gang member or another tearing someone's throat out. She also says the Whale's been eating some of the bodies."

Raven felt sick. "Those bastards," she whispered. "Why the hell cain't they take what they want and go?"

Where Raven looked ill, Emma looked angry. "She didn't just tell me, either. She told a whole damn pack of townspeople. Now _everyone_ knows about it. I had to stop them from panicking completely."

"Shit," Raven swore. "What is WITH her today? First I had to dress her down for saying the wrong thing in front of me, and now she's doin' it again!"

"Oh, it's much worse than that, Mystique," Emma told her.

Raven glared at her. "Well, THAT was uncalled for."

"Rose lied, _Sheriff Darkholme_. I could see it in her mind. She didn't see no such thing," Emma retorted.

The sheriff took a step back, shocked. "She what!"

Emma nodded. "Oh, they're in Redrock, all right. From what I could see from Rose's memories, they burned half the town and smashed the other half. And there were dead bodies, but nothing to suggest that the Gang went out into the farms and pulled people from their hiding places."

"GodDAMN," Raven whispered. "But why?"

"I don't know, Sheriff. Maybe someone put her _up_ to it?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think?" Emma asked sarcastically.

"You read her mind! What did that tell ya?"

"I couldn't make a complete reading," Emma said. "I was a little busy trying to calm everyone down."

"Well, why don't you go BACK there and finish the job?" Raven snarled at her. "Because I'd _die_ before I tried manipulatin' these people into risking their lives against someone like the Gang! If anyone here goes for that sort of thing, it's you."

Emma should have been enraged by her last words, but instead she grew calmer. "So you weren't in on it? You know I can't read you, so I have to rely on your word."

"I swear on Irene's grave," Raven said solemnly.

"All . . . all right, then," Emma said. "Guess you wouldn't break THAT oath. You said you chewed Rose out earlier? Maybe this was her idea of redemption, make things up to you."

"Making it up to me? By doing THIS?"

"A lot of people out there are saying that if the Gang's going to kill us whether we're in town or not," Emma told her, "then they might as well stand and fight. Rose probably knew how badly you wanted a shot at these bastards, and how you weren't going to get it once the townsfolk refused to fight, so she gave them a little incentive."

Raven blinked. "What do you mean, I wasn't going to get a shot?"

"Well, you only said you were staying because you hoped it would shame the others, right?" Emma said.

The sheriff just shook her head. "Twarn't no lie, Mayor. I'm staying no matter who's with me. Guess I'm just not as devious as you."

"You were going to fight them anyway!" Emma asked, flabbergasted. "I called you a crazy fool, and I was right!"

"I probably am," Raven agreed. "Sure enough, Stagg thinks so. But the three of us can do it - IF Rose gets her white forelock out of her derriere!"

"Didn't you hear me?" Emma asked. "I said the others are fighting too."

"They'll change their mind when you tell 'em the truth, won't they?"

Emma looked away. "Yeah, well, I decided not to."

"You _what_?"

"If I tell them the truth, Rose will be chased from this town, never to return," Emma said softly. "And then it'll just be you and Waylon, and you'll both die. Damn it, Raven, this town NEEDS you. So if you're not going to get your OWN head out of your OWN derriere, then you need this town too. Besides," she added, "now that I've seen images of what the Gang will do to this town . . ." She shuddered.

Raven rubbed her head. "Thanks, I guess, Emma."

"If you want to thank me, try taking orders a little better in the future!"

"I'll try," the sheriff said with an ounce of sincerity. "I'd better separate the people with powers I can use from the ones without. Then later you and me are going to take a ride together."

"A ride?" Emma asked, confused. "Where?"

"Someplace even farther than ol' Stagg's ranch," Raven replied. "We're going to see if we can get help from the Chief."

Emma exploded. "Are you insane? We are NOT riding into Apache territory, and THAT is an order!"

Raven just smiled. "I said I'd try taking orders better, Mayor. I didn't say I'd succeed."

To be continued . . .


	6. Chapter Five

Title: Amazing, Arizona (5)

Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.

Rating: R

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Chapter 5

"Four?" Emma asked. "That's all?"

"Kinda sad, when you think about it," Raven admitted. "Everybody's so scared of us mutants, sayin' we can level entire cities with our powers, and yet there ain't enough of us with fightin' abilities in this whole town to fill a baseball team. Mutants who are of age, anyway."

Emma's eyes narrowed as she sat in her office. "Are you trying to imply something, Sheriff?"

"No, ma'am."

"Perhaps a suggestion that my _niece_ should be included in your little militia?"

"Crystal's too young," Raven said calmly. "She'd be of no use in a firefight. Still," she added, her voice becoming wistful, "it'd be nice if we had someone older with her powers. It'd make things a lot easier."

"Nothing about this fight will be easy," Emma pointed out.

"At least we'll have 'em outnumbered," Raven replied.

"Hmph," Emma said, but she could see by Raven's face that the sheriff knew how little that mattered. "So who are the four?"

"Sean and Lorna Cassidy, Angelo Espinosa, and . . ." Raven hesitated. "Kay Starr."

Emma raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure Kay is a wise choice?"

"Kay's the strongest person in town, 'cept for Rose," Raven said. "I need her. I just hope she recognizes how serious the situation is. Otherwise," she admitted, "she'll turn into a liability right quick."

Kay Starr was one of the town's most beautiful residents, as well as one of the strongest. With her blonde hair and voluptuous figure, the single men in town should have been all over her. But they kept their distance. And with her strength, she was the best worker on Emma's ranch - her favorite activities included taming mustangs, and taking the reins from the oxen and pulling the plow herself. She should have been the foreperson. But she wasn't.

Kay was also a hard drinker with a violent, razor-thin temper, and a tendency to start throwing punches in the saloon once a month. And when Kay threw a punch, you didn't get back up until the following day. It usually took both Rose AND Waylon to subdue her. For that reason, men tended to avoid her. And since the stories of Wild Bill Hickok and his followers reached the town, some had begun calling her "Calamity Kay" behind her back. Probably not a smart idea - eventually she'd hear about it, and then woe to whoever said it.

The shame of it was, Kay wasn't a bad girl, Raven thought. She suspected that Kay, who ironically hailed from the Atlanta area just as Deputy Rose did, had bad memories. They all did, of course, but Kay didn't seem to be able to deal with them.

If Kay decided to pick a fight with Rose at the wrong time, they were in big trouble, whether she was a bad girl or not.

The other three could be relied upon. Sean Cassidy could generate a kind of powerful sound wave from his mouth that could bore through solid rock. His wife of several years, Lorna, was a living magnet. She could sense, move, and manipulate metal with her powers. Naturally they had both gravitated toward mining as a career. Lorna could detect the metal ores in the earth, and Sean used his voice to pulverize rock until Lorna's powers could start drawing out the metal. They'd struck several rich veins that way, but it seemed no court in the land would uphold the claim of two mutants, no matter how much evidence there was in their favor. And with green hair that resisted the dyes of their time, Lorna had little hope of passing as normal.

At least in Amazing they'd been allowed to work their own mine without interference, and their discoveries had made them the wealthiest couple in town - although not as rich as Emma, of course.

Angelo Espinosa was the town's sole Mexican, although you couldn't have told by looking at him. Instead of brown skin like his people, he had a dull gray skin that stemmed from having six extra feet worth. He was able to keep it under control without having it hanging everywhere, and in a fight, he could stretch himself out a good distance without breaking. It wasn't much, Raven thought, but unfortunately it was the best she could do.

"Anyways," Raven said, "I'd like to have Crystal and the Selton twins, but they're too damn young. Maybe in five years or so."

"I'm not sure you want a couple girls flinging fire around anyway," Emma noted. "Considering this town's mostly made of wood."

Raven chuckled. "This town's getting knocked around no matter what, but I see your point. Well, Claire and Angelica might still get their chance if the Charnel House Gang gets past us."

"If any Gang members DO get near us," Emma said icily, "he'll find out just how dangerous I am."

The sheriff nodded. She'd tried to convince the mayor several times to join the fight, but it was that reason that had finally persuaded Raven that Emma should stay with the others. She'd be the last line of defense. "Well, in that case, Rose and Waylon are drilling the temporary deputies, and Reverend's organizing the evacuation. Guess that leaves you and me to ride out to Apache country, then."

Emma exhaled loudly. "I was hoping you'd discarded that plumb fool idea of yours by now," she said, irritated.

"Since when have I ever done that?"

"Just because they don't bother us, except for an occasional cattle raid, doesn't mean they won't do anything but scalp us," Emma told her.

"The Chief's got over a hundred trained warriors out there," Raven replied. "And I bet they're spoiling for a fight. Mebbe beating an enemy that the US cavalry couldn't beat will mean something. Besides, if we split the reward money with them, they can probably buy all that land from the state."

"Oh, and you were going to share that with me when?" Emma asked.

"On the way," Raven said, grinning. "I think a dozen braves would come especially handy against the Whale."

"How so?"

"Well, it ain't his body that's protected, it's just his insides. That layer of blubber he's got is so damn thick that bullets can't pierce his organs," Raven explained. "But I reckon Whale won't be able to move around so well if he's got fifty arrows sticking out of him. Might distract him something fierce."

Emma frowned. "You certainly do know a lot about them, don't you?"

"I told you, I saw them kill," Raven said. "And I get the wanted posters, same as every other sheriff." She paused. "You ever see a Charnel House wanted poster with the name Mystique on it?" she asked softly.

"No," Emma admitted. "But you did your share of killing, and you hung with your share of killers. I take it you heard stories from that kind of people?"

Raven looked away. "When I was that kind of people?" she asked. "Before Irene? Yeah, I heard a lot."

The mayor nodded slightly. "All right then. Let's go then. When the Apaches are about to kill us, at least I can die with the words 'I told you so' on my lips."

"Knowing you, you'd die for that kinda opportunity," Raven said. "But I'd die before I'd admit you were right."

"Probably," Emma said sourly.

* * *

Raven sighed. She wondered if she should try to enjoy this more. It might be one of the last times she rode her horse. She patted Summers on the neck as they trotted closer towards dangerous territory. She'd ridden him since becoming sheriff of Amazing.

"I was thinking the same thing."

Raven turned her head, startled. "What?"

"I've been riding Sagebrush for years," Emma said as she rode alongside. "Hard to think that maybe I won't be alive to enjoy her much longer."

"Summers is a good horse," Raven agreed. "He takes orders well."

"Unlike his rider," Emma muttered. "Mind if I ask you a couple things before my scalp - a scalp that comes attached to hair I'm quite fond of, I needn't remind you - ends up on a stick?"

"Sure," Raven said.

"Why did I agree to come with you again?"

"Because I'm infuriatin'."

"Other than that."

"I need your authority," Raven explained. "The Apaches trust normal white folk about as much as we do. They're not going to rely on the word of a lowly sheriff. My hope is the promise of the town's mayor will mean more. Out in the middle of nowhere, you're the closest thing to a government we've got."

"Damn," Emma said.

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"I was hoping it made less sense than when you explained the first time, and I could turn around and see to the townsfolk."

"And leave your sheriff - a sheriff who's your former lover, I needn't remind YOU - to face grave danger?" Raven teased. "Doubt it."

Emma scowled at her. "I wonder why you're a _former_ lover," she said sardonically.

"Did you want to ask me something else?"

"Yes. Where did you go in the middle of the night last night that was so important you couldn't oversee the work the Selton girls were doing yourself?"

Raven didn't answer at first. "Well, hell," she finally said.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Might as well tell you," Raven replied. "If we die, it won't matter. And if this town survives but I don't, you can make sure she ain't allowed back in."

"She? She who?" Emma asked, surprised.

"Thought I'd pay a visit on that creature who shops at our store once a month," Raven said. "The one with the wings and the tail."

"Ah," Emma said, remembering. "The one who refers to you as a 'copy', right?"

Raven mumbled something under her breath.

"I take it she's not going to help?" Emma asked.

"Nope," Raven said. "She ain't even human. Calls herself a gargoyle. She says she's the last of her kind."

"Killed by humans, I assume?"

Raven nodded.

Emma growled. "Mutants, Indians, buffalo, these gargoyle creatures - is there anything regular humans don't exterminate?"

"Cockroaches," Raven replied.

"Well, not for lack of trying," Emma said. "So what's her problem with us?"

"Says she don't see no difference between us and normals," Raven said. "We're all humans, and humans can burn for all she cares."

"Huh," Emma said. "I believe that's the first time I've heard someone express not the slightest bit of prejudice toward mutants, and mean it as an insult. So where did you find her anyway?"

"Box canyon," Raven said. "We passed within a couple miles of her cave not fifteen minutes ago. Her name's Demona, by the way."

"I remember reports of a Demona with a bounty on her head," Emma recalled. "You think she's the same person?"

"I looked into her eyes. She wouldn't bat an eye killing a man. Or a Gang member. Wish I had a few more like that on my side," Raven said regretfully.

"I don't," Emma said. "Would you want a stone-cold killer living in Amazing?"

"Other than me?" Raven asked.

Emma sighed. "You're not that person any more, Raven."

"What, you can read my mind all of a sudden?"

"No. I just know."

Raven looked down. "Thanks."

Emma scanned the horizon. "We're in Apache territory, aren't we?"

"Yep."

"And you've encountered the Apaches. Spoken with their Chief. Correct?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Do they think our sheriff is a woman with blue skin, or a big strapping man?"

Raven looked at her and swore. "Thanks again," she said, her voice deepening as she transformed into the man who had strode into a sleepy saloon not twenty-four hours ago to break up a poker game.

"If I don't point out when you're wrong, who will?"

"I'm sure you'd take on that chore if there were a hundred others willing to do it."

* * *

"Don't be afraid," Raven told Emma.

"I'm not," Emma said tightly. "I can read their minds, and they're not planning to kill us. Yet. We're surrounded by fifty armed Apaches, and if they CHANGE their minds we'll never see tomorrow, but I'm not afraid."

"Good. Let me do the talking when the Chief comes out."

"Since I don't speak Apache, I'll go along with that."

Raven shifted slightly in her saddle. If she'd been alone, she might have been received a shade less warily - maybe twenty Apaches instead of fifty. But to ride in here with a white woman at her side . . . the Apaches would find that mighty peculiar.

The teepee was tall and covered by many strange symbols, some of which Raven couldn't understand with her better-than-average knowledge of their tongue. Probably a shaman had written some of them, and who knew what language them shamans used? At any rate, it was a grand teepee for one man, but then that one man was Chief Lightning Flash, head of his Apache tribe.

He lifted the flap and came out a moment later in his headdress. Lightning Flash was still young, in his late twenties, but handsome and quick-witted. He was also impulsive, Raven had found, and prone to rashness. The fact that the tribe still prospered in its little corner of the West suggested that the tribal elders advising him were nowhere near prone to rashness.

"Greetings, Sheriff," Lightning Flash said calmly. "I see you have brought a guest."

"Evening, Chief," Raven replied. "This is my chief, Emma Frost. I work for her. She is the chief of my town."

"Ah," Lightning Flash said. "An honor to meet you, Chief Frost. The sheriff has told me things of you."

"She don't speak Apache, Chief," Raven told him. "I'll have to translate."

"I'm sure you've told him things of me," Emma said darkly, but she stared at the chief with great intensity.

"My chief says she is humbled to be in your presence, Chief Lightning Flash," Raven said. "She knows that our town exists by your permission, or otherwise your warriors would sweep us away like locusts."

Lightning Flash laughed. "I would not say as much, but if I wished it, you would no longer be here, Sheriff."

"Then I am glad you do not wish it."

"What brings you here with your Chief?"

"Bad omens. Have you heard of a group called the Charnel House Gang?"

"Char-nel?" the Apache repeated awkwardly.

"It is a building in which animals are slaughtered, Chief Lightning Flash," Raven explained.

"I see. I have never heard of these people. They are outlaws?"

"Very dangerous outlaws. Even the Great White Father in the East and his army fear this Gang."

"They must be very many!" the chief said, surprised.

"They are only five," Raven replied. "But they have great powers. The Great White Father has even offered a reward of one million dollars if any one of these outlaws can be brought to them - dead or alive."

Lightning Flash had avoided much contact with the whites, but he knew how much things cost out West, and his eyes widened. "A great sum," he said.

"True enough. They are going to attack our town in a day or two, Great Chief. We have come to beg you for the assistance of your warrior braves."

He waited a moment before replying. "If the white army cannot stop these creatures, how can we?"

"We have people in our town with great power too, Chief," Raven told him. "But they are few. They might have a chance of victory - IF aided by a swarm of your warriors."

"And what would I receive in return for helping you?" the Apache chief asked.

"Half the reward money," Raven said. "You could buy the land you're living on with that kind of money, Wise Chief. The white man has never listened when the Apache said, 'My people have lived on this land for generations'. But the white man will listen when the Apache shows his deed to the land and says, 'We own this land'. Plus the honor your men would receive for fighting this Gang. Any brave who could ride toward a Gang member, tap his body, and ride away again without being killed would be a brave of great skill indeed," Raven added, referring to something Indians were known to do in battle. Sometimes it was a greater boost to their reputation when the brave simply tapped his opponent with his hand and rode away without receiving a blow in return.

"AND," she said, "you can tell anyone who listens that your tribe has done what the white army has not. You have beaten a foe they could not."

Lightning Flash smiled. "Ah, now that would be good," he agreed. "Still, you are asking me to help you in a dangerous battle with only your word that what you say is true."

"And the word of my chief," Raven said. "Nod your head, Emma," she added in English.

Emma quickly nodded her head.

"Still, I will give the matter some thought. I will return to my teepee, and you will wait for my decision." Lightning Flash didn't appear to view this as a suggestion as he calmly went back into his home.

"That could have gone worse," Raven said, slipping back into English.

"It couldn't have gone much better, you mean," Emma replied, a smile tugging at her lips. "I can't eavesdrop on what he's saying in there, unfortunately. Those symbols must be some kind of shaman's spell blocking my abilities, damn it."

"Saying? To whom?"

Emma grinned at her. "Oh, Raven, I've learned the most interesting things from his mind."

"I thought you couldn't understand Apache."

"He may THINK in Apache, but I don't need his language to understand his memories. Did you know that he's one of TWO chiefs, for example?"

Raven's eyes widened. "You mean it? Well, where the hell . . . the other chief, he's in the teepee, isn't he?"

"The other chief is, yes, but it's not a man. It's his sister," Emma explained. "Apparently their father made her a co-chief because she was older, and she was intended to remain a chief until Lightning Flash is mature enough to decide for his tribe on his own. Lightning Flash loves his sister, but he also fears her, and he tends to defer to her decisions."

"So we're trying to convince her, not him?" Raven asked, frowning.

Emma nodded. "And there's more, Raven. Lightning Flash and his sister? They're both _mutants_."

Raven's jaw dropped. "You're not serious!" she hissed.

Emma's grin became broader. "Apparently Lightning Flash is _extremely_ fast. Faster than the human eye, even. In one of his memories he attacked a buffalo herd by HIMSELF and downed enough buffalo to feed the entire tribe, all with a bow and arrow."

"Wow," Raven said. "What we couldn't do with someone like that! And the sister?"

"I don't know her name yet," Emma said. "I need to understand Apache for that. But she has powers like the Selton girls. She can make some kind of green fire with her hands."

"What kind of impression could you get of her? Will she side with us or against us?"

"Hard to say," Emma replied, frowning. "I think she's the kind of person who would pursue any means of preserving their way of life, including buying the land. And she'd see a chance to embarrass the U.S. Army as a golden opportunity. But she's as fiercely protective of the Apache as I am of our people, it looks like, and she could decide she doesn't want to risk her warriors to help some white folk with something that isn't the Apache's problem."

Before Raven could respond, Lightning Flash came back out. "Sheriff?" he said. "I am sorry, but I have decided that my warriors are too important to this tribe. We are few enough as it is without losing some to the white man's problem."

"I told you," Emma muttered.

Raven thought fast. Knowing the chiefs were mutants made her want their help more than ever. But she couldn't convince a man who was taking advice from a woman she couldn't see. So she got off her horse.

The Apache became restless, but Lightning Flash raised a hand. "Is there something else, Sheriff?" he asked.

"I'd like your sister to tell me that to my face," Raven said. "Out here."

Lightning Flash's face grew stony. "I do not know what you speak of."

"Raven," Emma said doubtfully. She didn't know what was being said, but she obviously was getting nervous from what the Apache were thinking.

"Word gets around, even out here, Chief," Raven said. "If this is her decision as well as yours, then let her come out and tell me."

"Raven, what are you doing!" Emma hissed.

"Told the Chief I want the sister to come out herself. She's the decision-maker, after all," Raven told her.

"Raven, no!" Emma gasped. "There's something wrong with her! Her mutation, it makes her look different from the others! THAT'S why she stays in the teepee!"

Raven swallowed. "Oh," she said.

"I will have to ask you to leave," Lightning Flash said angrily. "You cannot demand such a thing of me! Not here, Sheriff."

"Oh, well," Raven thought before transforming into her true self.

The Apache burst out with cries of startlement, and several nocked arrows in their bows. Lightning Flash took a step back, stunned by this woman with blue skin.

"If your sister ain't coming out because she's embarrassed by how she looks," Raven told him, "I ain't one to judge. As you can see. I think you know what kind of person I am, right? I told you we have people with great powers. I hear you do too."

"Enough."

The voice came from the teepee. A pale hand had pulled one flap back. As the speaker came out, Raven looked at her and thought that this woman would never be called a "redskin". Her skin was almost white, except for a greenish tinge. She was dressed in clothing the Apache would have considered fine, in a shade so dark it was almost black. Her dark hair cascaded down her back, adorned with beads.

"I am Chief Cactus Fire," the Apache woman said coldly in her native tongue. "Who, or what, are you?"

A green glow caressed her fingers, and Raven didn't doubt that the woman could set her on fire from where she stood. "My name is Sheriff Raven Darkholme," she said. "And I'm a 'mutant' - just like you."

To be continued . . .


	7. Chapter Six

Title: Amazing, Arizona (6)

Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.

Rating: R

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Chapter 6

"Mu-tant?" Cactus Fire said slowly, repeating the English word. "What is that?"

"It's a word white folk came up with before the war," Raven said. "They say there's these little things in our bodies that make up who we are, but that there's something wrong with the little things in people like you and me."

"You and I are not the same, even if our colors are - different," Cactus Fire said proudly. "And I do not care what your white shamans said. My fire, my brother's speed - they were gifts from Coyote."

"If these are gifts, then why do you remain inside?" Raven asked.

Cactus Fire bared her teeth at her, and Raven realized from the fire in her eyes that this woman had a temper to rival Calamity Kay's. The Apache's hands became bathed in a green glow that didn't exactly look like fire, but Raven could feel the heat from where she stood. Her instinct was to go for her guns, but Raven knew that was insanity.

A moment later, she would have looked like a complete fool HAD she gone for her weapons. Before she even knew what had happened, her guns were missing from their holsters, and the bullets were scattered on the dust before her feet. Raven stared for a second, stunned, before she looked at Chief Lightning Flash and saw her guns in his hands. "When I heard you were fast," she said slowly in Apache, "I didn't realize how fast."

"You hear a lot for a paleface," Cactus Fire retorted. "And I care not what color you are now - you're one of them. You could never be like me, or any other Apache."

"That's it," Emma said, exasperated. "You have lost control of this situation." She swung her leg out of her saddle and dropped down to the ground. "Let YOUR chief get you out of this."

"Emma!" Raven exploded. "You're gonna get us both killed!"

"Says the unarmed woman who managed to infuriate an Apache chief with mutant powers," Emma snapped as she came toward Cactus Fire, who watched her warily but did not release her fire.

And Emma just stood there.

After a moment, Cactus Fire stiffened, and the flames winked out, leaving behind two pale fists.

"Aw, hell," Raven breathed, while Lightning Flash looked on in concern.

"Sister?" he asked Cactus Fire, approaching her.

But she continued to say nothing.

"What have you done?" he demanded, turning to face Raven. "Answer me, or you shall die from ten arrows from my own bow before you can draw another breath!"

"My chief is also a mutant - or blessed by Coyote, however you look at it," Raven said quickly. "She can speak using her mind. She can also hear the thoughts of others. That's how she knew about your sister." Although she wasn't sure how Emma was making herself understood when the women didn't share a common language.

He glared at her. "That is a great gift indeed," he said, "but I do not appreciate having my thoughts stolen. The white man has taken much from me and my people. I do not like the white man taking my thoughts as well."

"Mayor Frost has a very great will. As does your sister, I think," Raven replied. "And she does not enjoy waiting. I believe she is having a conversation, that is all. Chief Cactus Fire will be all right."

"She will NOT be _all right_," he said. "As you say, she is strong-willed. She will be angry at being forced to speak with your chief. As she is angry with you for your insult."

"I meant no offense," Raven said. "She would not have to remain indoors in my town. She is a very beautiful woman."

"She chooses to remain inside," he told her. "Her skin . . . it shames her," he admitted. "It makes her look like the white man."

"In my experience," Raven suggested, "skin color does not say what kind of person you are."

Suddenly Cactus Fire took a step back, and shook her head vigorously.

Emma sighed and smiled. "Now, wasn't that easier?" she asked Raven.

Before the sheriff could reply, Cactus Fire leapt forward and planted her foot in Emma's stomach, doubling her over. Raven tried to get between them, but once again Lightning Flash used his speed, this time to stop her from moving.

Several warriors aimed for Emma, but Cactus Fire's right hand flashed briefly, and the arrows fell again. "No!" Cactus Fire ordered. "They will be leaving now." She sneered at Emma. "Typical white. No matter how hard your mind is, your body is _soft_. And I _hate_ soft things!"

"And she says I'm the one who's prone to resolve problems with violence," Raven sighed.

* * *

"Are you sure you're all right?" Raven asked.

"For the last time, yes!" Emma snarled at her. Sagebrush and Summers continued at a slow pace back to town. Emma rode with one hand on the reins. Her other arm was pressed against her belly. "This is your fault, you know!"

"I'm not the one who barged into an Apache chief's brain without - " Raven stopped. "Yeah, okay, so I shouldn't have bothered with coming to them for help. I'm sorry."

Emma looked at her suspiciously. "You're apologizing? What do you want from me this time?"

"For Chrissake, Emma, maybe I'm just sorry to see you get hurt!" Raven burst out.

"Oh," Emma said. "Well. Thank you then. I'm sorry for accusing you of anything."

They rode on in silence for a while. "This is different," Raven finally said.

"What?"

"We're not arguing. It feels strange."

Emma chuckled. "There WAS a time when we didn't argue."

"Are you kidding? The very first time we met, we argued. 'Come to Amazing and be our Sheriff.' 'No, I won't, and there ain't nothin' you can do to make me.'" Raven made an irritated noise. "Guess I was wrong that time too."

"I certainly can't be wrong all the time," Emma said.

"Well, neither can I, and it'd do you well to 'member that," Raven told her.

Emma almost laughed, but it turned into a wince instead. "Ouch," she said.

"So what happened back there?" Raven asked. "I thought you couldn't speak Apache?"

"I showed her a lot of images, like moving pictures," Emma told her. "She could figure it out for herself."

"What kind of images?"

"Images of the Charnel House Gang slaughtering everyone in town, burning the buildings, and then riding off again," Emma said quietly.

"Do that to me and I'LL kick you," Raven said.

"I'll remember that too. Anyway, I also showed her images of more whites coming to repopulate our little town. I showed her the whites discovering her Apache tribe, calling in the government, and then the cavalry swooping in. Not much good against the Gang, but always the best at slaughtering Indians," Emma said. "I tried to make her see that this fight isn't just about a group of marauding outlaws. It's about a nation of marauding reg'lar white folk that'll follow on the Gang's heels. By the time I finished 'talking' to her, I discovered I'd convinced myself. Raven, we have to win this," she said in utmost seriousness. "The government is going to show up on our doorstep within a week, and as I see it, the only way we can hold Amazing together is by defeating the Gang. We'll let Washington tell the newspapers the _Army_ killed the Gang. In exchange, we get some of the reward money, and a promise to be left alone. Who knows?" Emma asked. "Our own little corner of the United States."

"Government don't keep promises," Raven said bitterly. "Just ask the Apache."

"It'd be something," Emma replied. "More than we've got now if our secret gets out. As for the Apache, well, they're outcasts like us. There's plenty of room as it is now for them. I tried to make that damn Cactus Fire SEE that, but she's so gosh-damned _stubborn_!"

Raven smiled. "You get that a lot, don't you?" she said.

Emma shrugged. "You're stubborn enough for three women," she replied. "Christ knows, I couldn't make you stay with me."

"Seeing as how I might be dead in a day or two, Emma?" Raven said quietly.

"I don't like you saying that, but yes?"

"It . . . it was too soon after Irene," Raven murmured. "I know, she died over a year before I came here, but you don't understand. She _changed_ me. She turned Mystique into Raven. She rewrote my mind better than you ever could." She hesitated. "If it twarn't for that, I might have stayed."

Emma stared at her. "Well, I never - we probably wouldn't have worked anyway," she said regretfully. "We like fighting too much."

"I reckon so," Raven said as the town slowly appeared on the horizon. "Still, you did make me feel awful welcome when I came to Amazing, and I'll always be obliged to you for it."

"I thank you for that," Emma told her. "Still, you don't have to be alone ALL the time."

"Ain't like there are a lot of many women with tastes like you and I, Emma. Certainly not in this town. Or have you been _peekin'_?"

"Oh, no, no," Emma said lightly. "There's just the two of us in town. Still, I _did_ catch a whiff of something from that Apache women."

Raven almost fell out of her saddle.

* * *

"Give the mayor a hand, Michael," Raven told the stable owner as she got off Summers' back. "She took a hurt while we were out there."

"Got it, Sheriff," he said as he offered Emma his hand.

"Off with you," Emma said irritably, waving him away. "Go nicker with your horses, Mr. Maxwell."

Michael Maxwell chuckled. He'd been labeled a "horse whisperer" since his teens when he seemed to have a strange connection to even the most ornery horse. Later he'd been labeled a "mutant" when it was discovered that he could talk to horses, and most other animals, just as easily as he could talk to people.

In fact, most thought he could talk MORE easily to horses. He was shy with most folk.

"I just wish I had more than seven," Raven sighed. "Not that I'm still trying to recruit you, Mayor. I'd rather not see you get hurt agin. It's just - first the creature, now the Apaches. If it wasn't for the townsfolk - "

"And Rose's deception," Emma muttered.

"I told you, I'll deal with that when the time comes!" Raven hissed.

"Sheriff?"

Raven turned around. "Yeah, Michael?"

"Summers here, he's complaining that there's a stone under his saddle that's been bothering him all day."

"Well, take it out then," she sighed.

"I did," he said. He held up something white. "And there's some paper wrapped around it."

Raven was surprised. She looked at Emma. "You have any idea?"

"None," Emma said, curious.

Coming over, Raven took the stone and unwrapped the paper tied around it.

"Sheriff,

We can help you if you help us first.

O"

"O?" Emma asked, mystified. "One of the Apaches maybe?"

"Maybe," Raven said. "Though damn, what more can we offer them? And the only other place I've been today was . . ."

"Was where?" Emma asked.

"Son of a bitch," she whispered. "That mother-fuckin' sonuvabitch!"

Both Emma's and Michael's eyes widened. "Sheriff?" the stablekeeper asked.

"Mayor, you check on my deputies," Raven said quickly. "Better yet, I will. I'm going to need one of them for an hour. Michael, looks like I'm gonna need Summers one more time tonight."

"Right away, Sheriff!" he said.

"Raven, what's this note about?" Emma asked.

"I was one other place today," Raven told her, and her eyes changed slightly, becoming a shade of red. "And I know who wrote this. And I know a lot more now. And I'm tolerably angry, and knowing exactly who to take it out on."

"Who? What IS all this!"

But Raven mounted her horse and rode out of the stable. "Sheriff!" Emma called after her.

Paying the mayor no mind, Raven rode into the center of town and found her four drafted deputies drilling with Rose and Waylon. "How's it going, Rose?" she asked.

"Not bad, Sheriff," Rose said. "But we haven't gone over the whole plan yet, shugah."

"Well, I'm borrowing one of them, so I'll explain the plan on the way."

"What?" Rose asked. "Who? On the way there?"

"No time," Raven said. "Kay."

Calamity Kay looked up. She looked dirty, but she always did. More importantly, she looked sober. "Yeah, Sheriff?"

"Get your horse. You're comin' with me right _now_."

"What fer?"

"To make an arrest," she said coldly. "Dead or alive."

Kay grinned. "Sounds like fun."

"While I'm gone," Raven said to Rose while Kay went running for her horse, "I want you to speak to the Reverend when he returns. Ask him if he can use that trick of his to travel to the outskirts of Milton. Have him wait there until the Gang arrives, then come right back here. Can you remember that?"

"I kin do it mahself, Sheriff," Rose pointed out.

"No," Raven said heatedly, directing her a stern look. "The Reverend goes. YOU stay here."

Rose looked nervous but only nodded.

"Sheriff!"

Raven turned Summers about and saw Kay coming on horseback. "Me and Beetle are ready for a fight," she said, referring to her horse. Like much else about Kay, the horse's name was a mystery. "Do I need a gun?"

"Just your fists."

Kay grinned ferociously. "All righty then."

"We ride," Raven said. "Hyah!"

As the two women rode beyond the town's borders, Kay turned to look at Raven. "Where we goin'? Apaches?"

"No," Raven said. Her voice was murderous. "Simon Stagg's ranch."

Emma watched them go. "Michael," she said calmly.

"Yes, Mayor?"

"Be a dear and fetch me Sagebrush. I'll be making a quick ride of my own."

"Just a moment, Mayor."

Emma blew a kiss at the rapidly shrinking form of her sheriff. "I'm going to get you some more help, Raven, whether you like it or not. Because I don't _reckon_ I want to see you get hurt either."

To be continued . . .


	8. Chapter Seven

Title: Amazing, Arizona (7)

Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.

Rating: R

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Chapter 7

"So what's the plan, Sheriff?" Kay asked as their horses pulled up in front of Simon Stagg's ranch house.

"We walk in," Raven replied. She'd gone into some detail about her intentions for the Charnel House Gang and how she intended to use Kay in the fight. Kay would have one of the most dangerous assignments - she would be helping to take down the rattler Forktongue, the only member of the Gang that Raven had no real answer for. With his size and speed and diamond-hard scales, Raven wasn't sure how he could be stopped except by the brute force of people like Kay and Rose.

But she had refused to explain why they were going to see Stagg. With "Calamity" Kay's temper, she'd break Stagg in two before he'd have a chance to speak. So Raven had kept this knowledge bottled up inside, her rage coiled like a hissing snake. For Stagg's safety, she prayed that she had misinterpreted the note.

She so wanted something to hit, though.

"Should we knock?" Kay asked as they walked across the dusty plain.

"You can git the door."

"In or out?"

"Out. Wouldn't want to hit someone on the other side - yet."

Kay grinned. "Yes, ma'am."

Their boots made loud noises on the wooden porch as Kay grabbed the doorknob and ripped the entire door off its hinges. She threw it behind her, and it landed several feet away, briefly spooking the horses.

"Thanks, Depity," the sheriff said.

"Twarn't nuthin', Sheriff."

There was a noise from above, and Simon came storming down the stairs, a shotgun clutched in his hands. "Whoevah's out there, you better git before I - " he thundered before he saw Raven in his parlor. "Sheriff?" he asked suspiciously. "What's the meaning of this?"

Raven was scarily fast with a gun, and she had it out in no time at all. "Don't much appreciate guns pointed my way, Stagg," she said coldly. "You mind puttin' it aside?"

He didn't let go of the gun, but he did let the barrel drop so that it rested on the floor as he finished descending the stairs. "All right," he said. "You want to explain what happened to my door?"

"Simon Stagg, you're under arrest," Raven told him.

"Why? Because I won't join your little band of fighters? Because we won't evacuate?" he asked scornfully.

She glowered at him. "You're under arrest for crimes against mutants, Simon."

Kay's jaw dropped. "WHAT?"

"That ain't no crime I evah heard of, Sheriff," Simon said.

"It's a local ordnance, first one our Mayor passed, Stagg," Raven replied. "I'm going to have to ask you some questions - Deputy, stand the fuck down!"

Kay had come running towards Simon, wrenching the gun out of his hands and throwing it aside. It made a nice hole as it went through a wall. She'd been about to strike him in the face when Raven shouted at her. "Why? What the fuck's he done, Sheriff?" Kay demanded.

"That's what I'm here to find out," Raven said. "Maybe you'd like to tell me more about Ororo and Thomas, Stagg?"

He laughed. "What you want to know about the niggers, Sheriff?"

Then he cried out as Raven came forward and backhanded him across the face.

"I don't like that word," Raven snarled, "and I kindly ask you not to use it again."

"Why couldn't I do that, Sheriff?" Kay complained.

"Because he'd be out for three days if you hit him, Deputy."

Simon spat blood. "What you want to know about the _farmhands_, Sheriff?"

She handed him the note she'd found wrapped around the rock under Summers' saddle. "You recognize the scrawl, Stagg?"

He looked surprised. "Can't say that I do."

"Does Ororo know her letters?"

"Not that I know of, Sheriff."

"Because she was all alone with Summers this morning, Stagg. I don't know anyone else who would have slipped me that note on the sly the way it was done, and I don't know anyone else with the initial O."

"I told you, she cain't write," Stagg said sulkily.

"Because if she _could_, and if she _did_," Raven said with menace in her voice, "then it makes me wonder what she meant by that note. She knew I needed help, and the only way she could've known that is if she heard me. Which means she ain't deaf, Simon. And if she thinks she can help me, then I reckon she ain't no normal human, either. So Simon Stagg - you want to tell me anything about those necklaces they wear around their necks?"

"Tribal custom, Sheriff."

Raven nodded. "You know what?" she said. "I don't believe you. So I'm going to question your farmhands, and then I'm having you arrested whether they speak or not. You'll be locked up in our jail, Simon. And everyone in town will know you're in jail for suspected crimes against mutants." She came closer. "Jest imagine it, Simon - all those frightened, angry mutants with their special abilities, and you all alone in that jail cell. Ain't never seen a Southern white man lynched before."

"You're lying," Simon said. "And you're the sheriff! It's your JOB to make sure nothing happens to the pris'ners!"

"I kin only do so much against twenty mutants, Simon," Raven replied. "And even if you survive the night - well, imagine what'll happen if the Charnel House Gang finds you tomorrow."

Simon blanched for a moment. But then he gave her a calculating look. "And if I answer the questions?"

"You'll still be under arrest, but I won't say why. I'll make sure nobody knows until after the Gang is gone. I'll make sure you're somewhere safe when the Gang arrives, too." She shrugged. "And if the Gang kills us all, then I s'pose you have nothing to be afraid of." She mentioned that because she imagined he had already thought of it himself.

Stagg stared at her. "Imagine I don't have much choice."

"I could have my deputy tear you apart right now."

"All right, they're mutants!" Simon burst out, frightened.

Kay snarled at him, but Raven shot her a look that clearly said, "Don't fucking move."

"What kin they do?"

"Ororo controls the weather," he finally admitted, his face sulky. "She can make storms and such. Thomas can do it too, but only when he's standing near her. He gets this - glow about him. I reckon he can copy what she's doin'."

"That's how you've made your money, isn't it?" Raven realized. "You used Ororo and Thomas to give you the perfect weather for your crops. Bumper harvest every year, right?"

He nodded.

"Exploiting mutants," Raven said icily. "While you're living near them. Why?"

Stagg sneered at her. "Mind if I tell y'all a story?"

She waved a hand, as if inviting him to enter.

"Back durin' the war," he said, "when I was a colonel in the Confederate Army, I received a letter one day from my plantation. Seemed one of my slaves was manifestin' powers when she reached womanhood. I knew then that I could use her powers, but I also knew she could do a LOT of damage to my property if she wanted to. Floods, hailstorms, lightning, you name it. I was inclined to kill her and be done with it."

Raven resisted an urge to strangle him. "Go on," she hissed.

"A few days later, while I was still makin' up my mind," Stagg continued, "my men and I were in the Indian Territory when we encountered a tribe of Indians fighting a Yankee unit. Don't have much love for the Indians, but it was Union boys on Confederate soil, and my soldiers tore 'em apart. Funny thing, though - the Indian chief wasn't too keen on seeing us. Turned out he was a mutant too."

"Did you kill him?" Kay asked angrily.

"Far from it," he replied, grinning. "Turned out he had some sorta genius for machines. He could take 'em apart and put 'em back together ten times as good. I made a deal with him - he moved his tribe west out of Confederate territory, and I wouldn't report his existence to Richmond. All I wanted was - "

"The necklaces," Raven said. "They're not just adornin' your hands, are they?"

"They can't use their powers while they're wearin' them," Stagg confirmed. "I had two made in case one broke, but when I learned about Thomas after I came back, I used the second one on him."

"Why don't they take 'em off?"

"You got to know how," Stagg said, leering at her. "Only I know how. And we only take one off at a time. Thomas can use Ororo's power whether she's wearin' one or not. That way, if they kill me, one of 'em will be wearin' their collar for the rest of their days." He nodded at her. "And that's why you've got to keep me alive, Sheriff."

She frowned at him. "You WILL take them off now, Stagg."

"Or what? You'll kill me? I'm right close to death already, Sheriff," he replied. "And if you kill me, they'll be wearin' them forever. You NEED me, and for that I want safety. After the Gang is gone, I leave here with whatever property and money I can take."

"But why'd you come here, damn it!" Kay burst out.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked. "Can't just use mutie powers and not expect people to notice, unless I'm in the loneliest corner of the country. And when I heard rumors about a place for mutants - well, let's just say I always did find it amusin' that a man like me walked among you mutants, and you never knew it."

Raven couldn't hold it in after that. Her fist landed squarely in his gut twice, and he fell to his knees. "You're a sick, twisted man, Stagg," she said, not even breathing hard. "Something's mutated in your soul."

He coughed. "I'm still normal, though. More than you," he retorted.

"Let's just kill him anyway, Sheriff," Kay said.

"No!" she said. "We get them collars off their necks first!"

"What about Sapphire?" Kay asked.

"What _about_ her?"

"She knew all along and didn't say nuthin'. She's guilty of crimes against mutants too. Put HER in a cell when the Gang comes along," Kay said, with surprising calmness. "Unless he does what we want."

Stagg looked at her. Then a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I'd rather mourn my daughter than force her to mourn for me."

Raven spat on his head, and he jerked. "Filth," she said. "Kay, go upstairs and get Sapphire. We'll need to question her too. Don't rough her up, though."

"I'll try," Kay growled as she went past Simon and up the stairs.

"One thing I don't git, Stagg," Raven said, pointing her pistol at him again. "How'd they learn to write?"

He shrugged. "Musta learned at the plantation during the war. Guess they never had an opportunity to write someone a note before."

"They been in the general store plenty o' times," Raven said, in wonder and sadness. All that time, two mutants being enslaved and exploited. And she'd never known it. "What if it was Sapphire?"

"Impossible," Stagg told her.

"She's not here!" Kay sang out from upstairs.

Stagg looked up. "What!"

"She musta run for it when she heard us shoutin' down here," Kay said as she reappeared at the top of the stairs. "Window's open."

"The barn!" Raven said. "She's gone for the horses."

"There's more n' horses in the barn, Sheriff."

Everyone turned and saw Sapphire standing in the kitchen, looking back at them. "Sapphire?" Simon asked.

"Hi, Daddy," she sighed.

"Sapphire," Raven said gravely. "Sorry to see you like this."

"Me too," she said. "Come for Ororo and Thomas?"

"Yeah," the sheriff told her. "They in the barn?"

"Thomas is," Sapphire replied. "Ororo is - around somewhere."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Raven asked.

"I lost sight of her. She can fly awful high."

There was no answer for a moment. "Fly?" Raven finally asked. "I thought - "

"The obedience collars? I took them off."

"What?" Simon asked stupidly. "But I never - "

"I watched you, Daddy," she said. "I learned. She . . . she promised not to hurt you too much."

Her father gaped at her. "Sapphire, what have you done!"

Sapphire started counting her fingers. "Taught 'em their letters a while back," she said.

Raven suddenly realized the wind outside sounded pretty loud. And there hadn't been any wind when they came inside.

"Helped them with their English . . ."

Kay looked up at the roof. The walls were shaking slightly.

"Took off their collars. Tonight was the first time, and it was slow business too. Took me over an hour each time. Only takes you thirty minutes, right, Daddy?"

"Wait, you started three hours ago?" Raven asked. "You couldn't have known we were coming!"

"You're right, I didn't," Sapphire agreed. "But - lying to you people hasn't been too good to me all these years. Why'd you think I never came to the parties in town?" She wiped a tear from her eye. "And now daddy just wants to let your town die, when maybe Ororo could help you? I cain't do it, daddy, I just cain't!"

"Betrayed by my own flesh and blood," he snarled at her.

She tried to respond, but the roof of the house was torn off before she could say more than a word or two.

Raven put her hands over her head as she looked up, her ears assaulted with the deafening noise. She couldn't believe her own eyes, but it looked like the house was in the middle of - a tornado?

Simon wailed as he was unexpectedly ripped from the floor by the wind, even as the others were left untouched. A moment later Raven cursed her own instincts, because she grabbed at his leg and found herself pulled along with him. Her gun was yanked from her hand and sailed into the sky.

She screamed once, and then grew silent. She looked on in awe. Everything spinning around her, and she and Stagg were just floating straight up. She didn't let go, though. She didn't know what would happen to her if she did. Maybe she'd scream plenty then.

Her fears notwithstanding, she was ripped away from Stagg but found herself still rising. Stagg was now several feet away, and there was a look of pure terror in his eyes.

Raven liked that very much.

They finally came to a stop as a third person came between them, obscuring Raven's view. She could only see Ororo's backside, her long white hair not moving in the slightest despite the fierce winds. Despite the years she must have suffered, she seemed cool and elegant. In fact, she reminded the sheriff of Emma.

"Master," Ororo said. Despite Sapphire's claims of helping with her English, there was still a thick Southern accent that Raven had heard come from the voices of other blacks. Other blacks didn't speak to whites with their voices dripping with scorn, though.

"You are still my property!" Stagg shrieked at her.

"Didn't you know, master?" Ororo asked. "The war's over. And you LOST!"

Stagg was pushed backwards by the very air itself and found himself caught within the cyclone. He popped out just a few seconds later looking decidedly green. In that time he must have spun around a dozen times or more. There was vomit on his nightshirt.

"A . . . Nigra mutant," he croaked. "Most worthless creatuh on - the face of the earth!"

Raven could almost hear the smile in her voice. "But I'm not on the face of the earth, am I?"

Then Stagg was simply spat out of the tornado. Raven watched him fall, screaming. "Hoo, boy," she murmured.

Ororo turned around, and Raven became silent. Her eyes glowed more than the sheriff's ever could. Her eyes were lightning. "He will live," Ororo said. "He will be caught. What will become of him?"

"He'll go to jail," Raven said. "What happens then is anybody's guess, but I reckon he won't last long. I hope I don't ever catch the one who does 'im in."

"Good," Ororo said. "You came to help?"

"Yep," Raven said. "You still offerin' it?"

Ororo nodded. "If my brother and I shall live free in your town, as good as the whites?"

"As good as the whites, the browns, the greens, the reds - and the blues," Raven said with a smile.

The African smiled a little. "Then you have our help."

Raven found herself descending again. "Always wondered what flyin' was like."

"It's very freein'," Ororo said. "Specially when you ain't wearing that theah collah."

"Sapphire helped you," Raven said.

"Don't hurt her," Ororo replied. "She's been fair to us. Wasn't for her, we'd still be slaves."

"Good to hear. Wasn't partial to lockin' her up anyway. Sweet girl, for a normal."

* * *

"Amazin' indeed," Kay said for the twentieth time as their horses approached the town. "First man I evah met who took a punch from me and didn't go down!"

"Toldja, ma'am," Thomas spoke up as he and Ororo floated alongside them. Sapphire was riding behind Raven, while Stagg, still unconscious, was slung over the horse behind Kay. "I had your power. You hittin' me wasn't no different from you hittin' yerself."

"I reckon so," Kay said. "Not even Rose - amazin'!"

"Which is where we are," Raven said, sighing. Damn, but finding Stagg out and seeing him punished made her feel better!

"Sheriff!" Deputy Rose came flying towards them. "Glad you finally returned. With you and the mayor . . . " She gaped at Ororo and Thomas. "Uhhhh."

"Long story, deputy," Raven said. "What about the mayor?"

"Well, with both of ya gone, things've been moving kinda slow-like."

"Gone!" Raven said, startled. "When?"

"Jest after you left, Maxwell said," Rose said. "Rode off thataway." She pointed in a different direction from the way Raven had come. "Somethin' important, I guess."

Raven stopped feeling better. "Goddamn," she swore. "Where the hell could she have gone off to! She cain't have been so tomfool stupid to have gone back to the Apaches, and everyone else around here is in town!"

"What's with him?" Rose asked, pointing at Stagg.

"Lock him up. I'll explain later," Raven said, distracted. She just _couldn't_ have gone to the Chief - Chiefs. She'd be killed!

Then she closed her eyes. There was ONE other person in their parts, and she'd told Emma exactly where she was. "Aw, hell," she muttered.

"What, sheriff?" Rose asked.

"Fuck!" Raven swore, startling everyone. "Kay, you take everyone and explain what happened to Rose! Rose, Ororo and Thomas here are helping with the fight, and so help me, if you're going to get all Dixie on me and pitch a fit - "

"No problem, Sheriff," Rose said quickly, remembering what Raven had said just that morning.

"I gotta find our too-smart-for-her-own-good Mayor Frost," Raven said, letting Sapphire down. "Wish I had something faster than Summers, though." Then she looked at Ororo. "How fast can you fly?"

"Pretty fast," Ororo said.

"You mind flyin' me somewhere?"

"Not at all."

"Good. Rose, take my horse." She sighed. "Wish I could make it rain like you kin, Ororo. It'd be a lot easier putting out all these damn fires!"

* * *

"Well, aren't you a specimen?" Emma asked as she walked in a circle, a lantern in her hand the only light.

Except for the burning red lights that were the gargoyle's eyes. She stood for Emma's inspection, unable to move due to some kind of damned witchery – or rather, the bitch's powers that had made her mind and her body stop speaking the same language!

"My sheriff is going to have ALL the help she needs for the fight," Emma said, her voice no longer jocular. "Raven would never admit it, but this town needs her very much, and I give my people everything they never had before."

"When I'm through with you – " Demona snarled, her lips at least working.

"When I'm through with YOU," Emma interrupted, and Demona's lips weren't working any longer, "you'll be fighting right alongside her. And you'll WANT to be there." She smiled cunningly. "And maybe afterwards, you'll want her too. My sheriff is awful lonely these days."

To be continued . . .


	9. Chapter Eight

Title: Amazing, Arizona (8)

Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.

Rating: R

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Chapter 8

"Why are you doing this?" Demona managed to ask, her voice strangled. What could this mutant do to her mind? Could she actually make her _love_ a human? The final indignity! No, it couldn't be!

"I told you," Emma said. "It's about protecting others. Is that a completely foreign concept to your species?"

"Protection . . . is the lifeblood of most gargoyles," Demona growled.

"Most, eh?" Emma chuckled. "Most meaning not you, right? Well, perhaps I should reintroduce you to the word. You know of the Charnel House Gang? The danger my town is in? Sheriff Darkholme has managed to recruit several other mutants to the defense, but they could all die. ALL those who live in Amazing could die. I have sworn that can never happen."

"So why me? Because I rejected her?" Demona retorted.

"Perhaps," Emma murmured. "But mainly because you look like someone who knows how to fight. I'm told your name has appeared on a Wanted poster or two?"

"Or ten," Demona said angrily.

"Still," Emma said, "I need to know more about what kind of person you are. Fortunately," she added, grinning, "that won't be a problem."

Demona suddenly gasped, her back arching and her wings flaring to their widest spread. Her tail snapped at the dust.

"Hm," Emma muttered. "Isn't _that_ interesting . . . flight . . . increased strength . . . immortal! If you're not _completely_ delusional, then that itself is almost worth the price!"

The first of a thousand years of memories began to flicker through her mind, and Demona realized the human was sifting through them as if they were books in a library. "No," she could barely be heard to say. "You - will - not - rape - my - mind!"

Summoning the image of a filthy human hand pawing through her insides, Demona screamed and took a lurching step towards Emma, raising a taloned hand as if it were in molasses.

Emma swayed backwards, putting a hand to her head. "Your mind is strong, and your willpower exceedingly so," she said, wincing. "But mine is stronger."

Demona screamed as she felt herself pushed backwards by an invisible force. Both hands were now raised to her temples. "NO!"

"Changing your memories will be difficult," Emma said. "But I've never backed down from a challenge."

* * *

"Did you heah dat?" Ororo asked as they sailed on the winds she summoned.

"Yeah," Raven sighed. "Down there." She pointed to their left.

Ororo looked and saw the speck of light on the plain. "I can land us on top of them, if you want."

"Set us down a few yards away, Ororo. Real quiet-like, you hear?"

"I heah you fine, sheriff," Ororo replied.

Raven had exceptional eyesight, like most experienced gunslingers, and as they landed softly, she could see two figures illuminated by a lantern. Emma was facing off with the creature from the box canyon. Demona couldn't have gone there willingly, so the mayor had to be using her powers to keep her there. Raven shook her head. If it wasn't one thing, it was another.

She walked normally. There was no point in trying to approach silently on the rocky soil, and it wasn't as if Emma was her enemy. Not yet, anyway, and damned if she wasn't going to make sure that didn't change.

But she unsnapped her holsters so it would be an easy thing to draw her guns.

Still, the mayor was sufficiently wrapped up in her activity that Raven caught her completely unaware. "Evenin', mayor. One more and we'll have ourselves a bridge match."

Emma staggered, caught herself. "Sheriff!" she hissed, exasperated. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"What on earth are you doing, period?" Raven asked.

"You sound tired, Raven," Emma observed.

"Well, I am," the sheriff retorted. "I haven't had a wink of sleep since yesterday morning. I've been running all over this territory for the past thirty-six hours trying to find a way to save the town from the Charnel House Gang. I don't need to be out tonight looking for the mayor when we've still got a strategy to nail down, Emma. So I am fucking tired, thank you very much!"

Emma didn't bother to look at her. She saved her intent gaze for the gargoyle, who had slumped to her knees. Her taloned hands rested on her thighs. She stared straight ahead, not moving. "How'd you know where I was?"

"Michael said he saw you go off this way," Raven said. "You sure as hell wasn't goin' back to Apache country. Then I remembered telling you where the gargoyle could be found. How did YOU get HER down here?"

"Rode out to the canyon and searched for her thoughts with my mind," Emma replied absently. "Told her that if she wanted me out of her head, she'd better come down."

"Well, some people will do _anything_ to shut you up, Emma," Raven said.

"Did you need something, or are you just here to give me more of your unfair abuse?"

"For one thing," Raven growled, "thought you might want to know that I done arrested Simon Stagg for crimes against mutants."

That finally earned her Emma's full attention. "Against mutants? For what!"

"Ororo and Thomas, mayor. They're mutants. Those necklaces were some newfangled contraptions that prevented them from usin' their powers."

Emma's hand shot up to her throat. "Good Lord," she murmured. "Did he say how he acquired these machines?"

"Sounds like they was custom-made, Emma."

"All this time," Emma said, looking away. "All this time and we never knew."

"How the hell did you miss that, Emma?" Raven asked. That had been bothering her.

Emma grimaced. "Simon and Sapphire, they're . . . one-percenters."

"Beg pardon?"

"There's about one in every hundred people whose minds won't open themselves up to me," Emma admitted with extreme reluctance. "Might even be a minor mutant power, because it tends to run in families."

"Call me crazy, Mayor Frost, but I don't see many people considering themselves mutants because their minds CAN'T be read." Raven paused. "Is that why you can't read my mind? Am I one of them one-percenters?"

"No, I still believe that's a product of your shape-shifting ability, Raven," Emma said. "By virtue of your power, your brain is a somewhat - unique creature. Anyway, I worried what secrets Stagg held when I couldn't read his mind, but I couldn't right well do anything about things I didn't know . . . Sapphire under arrest too?"

"Nope," Raven said. "She took off their necklaces even before she knew we were coming out to the ranch. Said it was so they could help defend the town. She's more'n a bit remorseful for her actions, and I'm hoping I can keep her out of too much abuse from the townsfolk."

"So Ororo and Thomas, you can use them?"

"Ororo can control the weather, Emma. The fucking _weather_. And Thomas can copy the powers of anyone next to him. Yeah, I think we can use 'em. That brings our numbers to nine."

"Good," Emma said. "Give me five minutes, and you'll be able to outnumber the Gang two to one."

Raven looked at her for a moment. "You gonna tell me what's going on now, Emma?"

Emma smiled craftily. "I'm changing her memories."

"You're WHAT?"

"I'm erasing her memories of being a gargoyle. Then I'm going to create new ones of her being a mutant. By the time I'm finished, she'll be ready to defend the town as fiercely as you, Raven."

Raven noticed the way Demona's still form seemed to shake ever so slightly. "She awake?"

"Yes. Her mind has stopped sending instructions to her body now, except breathing and the like, but she can hear us just fine."

"Must be nice, hearing us discuss your plans right in front of her."

Emma's smile grew just a bit. "I'm doing her a favor, Raven. She's a bitter, miserable, lonely creature now. She'll be a lot happier when I'm finished."

If Raven had been dealing with almost anyone else, she wouldn't have lost her temper. If this had been any other time, she wouldn't have lost her temper.

But considering the stress she was under, AND the fact that no one could piss her off like the mayor, Raven did in fact lose her temper. Even if it wasn't immediately apparent.

"That sounds like a great idea, Emma," she said slowly.

"Praise from you? You must be more tired than you thought," Emma said.

"In fact," Raven said. She used her power, changing her skin color to a beige tone that would fit right in with the regular population. She added a inch or two to her breasts and her hips, and let her hair grow curly as it fell to the middle of her back. "When you're finished, I'd like you to do the same for me."

Emma blinked. "Er, what?" she asked, caught off-guard.

"I think I'd be a lot happier if I thought I was a regular human, Emma," Raven explained. "So I want you to remove any memories I have of having powers. If I don't know I have powers, I can't exactly use 'em, can I? Think I'd like to head out to California, become a nice shopgirl somewhere. Oh, and remove my memories of Irene too. No need to be in mourning when I don't have to, right?"

"But . . . but you know I can't use my powers on you!"

"Oh, that's right!" Raven said in mock bitterness. "Damn! Guess I'm just goin' to have to be a miserable, lonely mutant for the rest of my days. Of course, Calamity Kay's not immune, right? Why don't you take away whatever memory it is that drives her to drink and brawlin' every month? Maybe then she'll be able to settle down, marry a nice farmer - "

"Stop it, just stop it!" Emma snapped, stung. "It's not the same!"

"Explain that one for me, Emma, because I ain't as educated as you."

"She's not even human!"

"Funny. I hear that from reg'lar folk all the time."

Emma's cheeks flushed brightly. "Yeah, but when I say it, even SHE'LL admit it's so!"

"Because she's got that, whatchoo call it? Self-awareness, Emma?" Raven asked, growing angrier. "She's got instinct AND reason. Last I heard, that's what separates us humans from the rest of the animals. You trying to tell me that because she ain't a human being, she ain't got the same right not having her mind FUCKED with as anyone in town?"

"She would be more than happy to see us all die, Raven!" Emma shot back. "I say she's an enemy the way she is, and as such she has about as much rights as those bastards riding their gold train here."

"Gee, guess I'm not going to convince you to change your mind, am I?" Raven asked, disgusted. "Never saw THAT coming."

"If you want to add this to the list of all the ways I'm unbearable, Raven, you go right the fuck ahead," Emma snarled. "This is about protecting our home, and I'll do with her as I please, just like I'd alter the mind of a buffalo or a rattlesnake if I thought it'd do good."

"Just doing your job?"

"That's right."

Raven drew both guns and pointed them at Emma. "You change her back, Emma, or I'm putting you in a cell with old man Stagg," she said icily.

Emma stood there for a long moment. "You're crazy," she finally said. "You need rest."

"I can rest when I'm out of this town, or when I'm dead," Raven said. "Either of those things are gonna happen if you don't either put it right, or put up your hands."

"Excuse me!"

"Well, I can handle not being able to lock up your stepson, but if the mayor thinks she's above the law, then there's no point in having a sheriff, is there? If we survive the Gang, I'll take off my badge and ride right out of here. And everyone will know it was because you're too much of a heavy-handed, arrogant bitch for me to stomach. Maybe they'll start calling you Queen instead of Mayor," Raven sneered. She looked at Emma, clad in her white riding dress. Always white as the snow. "All hail Emma Frost, White Queen of Amazing!"

Emma's mouth hung open. She couldn't have looked more wounded if Raven had struck her across the face with one of her pistols. "You - you can't mean that! Any of that!" she said, shocked.

"If you cain't read my mind, then look into my eyes, Emma," Raven said. "You change her back, you let her go, and you ride back with me. And maybe I can forget this whole thing happened."

"I don't think I can do that," Emma said slowly.

"Emma - "

"Forget, I mean," Emma added. "Some words stay with a person. Any mutant knows that."

Raven didn't respond. Emma was hurt in a way that went beyond their usual arguments, but this situation went beyond the usual arguments too. She was going to take Emma rewriting someone's mind about as well as she took Rose calling Ororo a nigger.

"But I don't doubt you mean it," Emma went on, after drawing a shuddering breath. "I - won't be able to reconstruct her memories one hundred percent. She'll have a blank spot or two. Although I hardly see how she'd miss them. It's all death and destruction and pain."

"Just do it," Raven said, suddenly exhausted.

Emma looked grim as she grew silent, refocusing her attention on Demona. "She won't be much grateful when she comes to, you know. She's completely unable to trust humans on principle alone. She'll say you did this because you think she'll help the town as a show of thanks."

"You think so?"

"I know so. I'm in her mind, remember? I can see exactly how she's responding to all of this. I can also tell she'll attack us as soon as she's able."

"Well, I didn't come out here to help her, only to get in a fight," Raven said. "Is there some way you can stop her until we're gone?"

"I can compel her to return to her cave," Emma said. "She'll come back as soon as she gets there, but it'll take her too long."

"Do it," Raven told her. "I've got one or two things to say to her. I don't rightly care to hear what vituperation there is in her mind, so you just finish changing her back, Emma."

"Fine," Emma muttered. "Although she has some choice words to describe you with. I'll have to use one or two later."

"You do that," Raven sighed. She crouched down and looked Demona in the eyes. "I don't care what you do when the Gang comes," she said quietly. "There'll be nine of us fighting the Gang, and I say we can win. I got three people who can lift a locomotive AND a full load of coal all by themselves. Two of 'em can take a cannonball in the chest and not even break more'n a rib or two."

"They can make steel rails fly through the air. They can shatter cliff faces with their voice. I'm thinkin' one of them can even drop a lightning bolt on someone's head. Fact is, Demona, we don't need you no more. I'm thinking you don't bring anything special to the table."

"Immortality," Emma murmured.

"So she can not die," Raven said. "Other than fodder for bullets, I don't see the use."

"She's strong. Not Rose strength, though."

"Did I ask you?" Raven retorted. "Look, Demona, I'm inclined to let you back into town if we survive this, on the grounds that what Emma's done to you tonight makes up for any - insensitive remarks you made before. But if you come lookin' for Emma's head on a platter, forget it. I've reserved that order on the damn menu. You come lookin' for trouble, and I'll put you down all night until you fly back home."

"I'm finished," Emma told her. "She's the same ornery, vicious, unhappy bitch she was before."

"Good." Raven tipped her hat to Demona. "For what it's worth - nothing, I reckon - I'm sorry. Sorry you feel the need to be so alone, too. I reckon you never had an Irene of your own."

She stood up. "Where's your horse, Emma?"

"A few yards yonder."

"Well, get Sagebrush and head for Amazing. You can see the newest mutants for yourself. And we can talk more when the fightin's over."

"Perhaps," Emma said indifferently.

Great. The Emma Frost "silent treatment".

Raven stood up and backed away from Demona for a few steps before turning and walking back to where Ororo waited.

A few seconds later, Demona stood up and, against her will, found herself walking back towards her canyon. The human no longer controlled her speech, however, and she cursed a blue streak the rest of the way back.

To be continued . . .


	10. Chapter Nine

Title: Amazing, Arizona (9/??)

Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.

Rating: R

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Chapter 9

"Well, I reckon we're done here," Raven finally told the others. "Less someone disagrees."

"They could be here any minute, Sheriff," Sean pointed out.

"The reverend'll come if they hit the rails again," Raven replied. "Then they'll have to either move the boulders Deputy Waylon put on the tracks, or they'll have to come on foot. Imagine it'll take them a couple hours to make it here when they DO leave. Enough time to roust you all from your beds, if you want some shuteye. Or tear you away from your fam'lies, if you want a few minutes more with 'em."

She fixed her eyes on a point somewhere above Kay's shoulder. "But if I have to pull one of you away from a BOTTLE, I'll strap you to the railroad myself and let the damn Gang drive over you. Clear?"

"Ain't had a drink all day," Kay grumbled.

"Ask me, I'm going to catch some sleep," Raven said, ignoring her. "Haven't caught a wink in two days. If the reverend comes back, we evacuate the townsfolk. If it's sunup and he ain't back yet, we assume the worst and evacuate the townsfolk." She frowned. "Other'n that, get a good look at this town while you can, 'cause there might not be much left this time tomorrow."

"Sheriff?" Ororo asked suddenly. "Where are we supposed to go? Can't rightly go back to the Stagg ranch."

Raven nodded. She'd forgotten. "Rose," she said. "Take 'em to the hotel. Something nice, if he's got it."

Rose pulled at her white forelock, a bad habit when she was uncomfortable about something, but said nothing. Raven assumed that her deputy felt awkward because it brought back memories of their altercation that morning. Assuming something different would just piss her off.

"Fine then," Raven said. "God bless." She put her hat back on and headed for home.

The next day, and everything she'd arranged, weighed so heavily on her mind that she didn't realize Emma Frost was waiting outside her home until she nearly walked past her. Raven realized she was even more tired than she thought, because the only emotion she felt upon seeing the mayor yet again was exhaustion. "Don't you got kids at home, Emma?" she asked.

"Crystal and Jason are fine, Raven," Emma said. "I wanted to see you for a minute."

"Consider me seen. Now go home. I need shut-eye."

"Raven," Emma said stubbornly, stopping her. "Whatever you may think of my methods, you have to realize that what I did tonight was for - "

"I know, I know, for the townsfolk," Raven sighed. "But Emma - "

"No," Emma corrected her. "Well yes, for them too, but I was doing it for you, Sheriff."

Raven was startled. "Me? Emma, if that's so, then you damn well got the opposite result."

Emma shot her a look. "The others are going to need you tomorrow, Raven, but I'd feel better if you weren't in town when the Charnel House Gang comes to town."

"I'd feel better if I wasn't in the same state as the Gang but - "

"No, dammit, Raven!" Emma growled. "You're not understanding me! You're in more danger than anyone else in this town! More than Rose, more than Kay, more than any of them! You can change your look, and you're damn quick on the draw. How the hell are either of those going to help you against the Charnel House Gang?"

"I know what I'm doing, Emma," Raven muttered.

"I suppose you do at that," Emma said. "There's reasons you're Sheriff, and those are the reasons you'll be here tomorrow. Doesn't mean I don't worry. This town would have a hard time moving on without you. And I'd miss you, even though you're a right bitch most of the time."

Raven frowned and scratched the back of her head. "I think that's s'posed to be two compliments, but danged if I hear the second one. I hear you, Emma," she quickly added, waving her hat at the annoyed woman. "I don't want you dead neither, and not just because you're the mayor. Although I disagree with your notion that the town can't go on without me. If there's one thing about mutants, it's we learn to live with - loss."

Emma nodded. Then she smiled wanly. "Never said the town couldn't go on without you. Just said it'd be hard, is all."

Raven chuckled absently, but her mind was on other losses. "Anything else, Mayor Frost?"

"No, I don't believe so, Sheriff Darkholme."

"Then I'm going to bed. You might consider the same."

"I'll do as I please," Emma said smugly as she walked away.

"Yeah, I right expect you will," Raven replied to the empty air.

Inside her home, she sat down on the bed, tossed her hat aside, and picked up her one framed photograph. "Living with loss," she murmured as she ran a finger across the glass.

* * *

Mystique walked her horse at an easy pace. Texas was miles and miles of nothing at all. No reason to flog your horse, unless someone was after you. And she was tolerably sure no one had tied her to those two bodies back in Lubbock.

Even if they had, good luck finding a shapeshifter. Although good luck never helped anyone before, if they'd ever had it.

And supposing someone was after her, she'd hear AND see them coming from a long distance . . . away.

Mystique took off her hat and squinted into the distance. There was at least one rider coming toward her at a fast pace, judging by the cloud of dust. Funny thing was, they were riding TOWARD Lubbock, not from it.

Whoever it was and wherever they were coming from, Mystique didn't exactly trust them. And even if they were a stranger, what was another human left moldering in the dry sun?

She unslung her rifle and cocked it, lining up her sights. When the lone rider, and it WAS a lone rider, got within a couple hundred yards, she fired into the dirt in front of the horse. It reared up on its hind legs as the crack of the rifle and the way the bullet slapped against the soil frightened it, and the rider almost fell. He did get down in a hurry, though. "Don't shoot!" he cried out. "I'm just a courier, miss!"

Mystique slung her rifle, disgusted. She'd rather it had been an enemy. Then she could enjoy the killing. She rode forward slowly, one pistol out and resting against the saddle, behind her leg where he couldn't see it easily.

Her forward progress ended when the man called out, "You wouldn't know a Raven, would you?"

There was _no way _he could know her name, and she raised her revolver. "I know OF a Raven, if you want ta know," she said coldly. "Who's asking?"

"Got a letter," he said. "For Raven."

She sat there, looking at him. "And what makes you think I'm her?"

"Well, miss, woman came into our office in Amarillo - "

"Amarillo's a long ways from here."

"Yes, I kin attest to that. Anyway, she offered one of us a lot of money to bring this letter - " He held up a tan envelope in one hand. "To a place about two days' journey south. Said to just keep on riding until I met a woman named Raven. Figured it was all pre-arranged, but we had a bet. Well, everyone except me, that is," he admitted sheepishly. "On account of I'da have a reason to lie if I did. Guess Tom wins the pot."

"Put both your hands up," Mystique said, as serious as he was laidback. "I don't like surprises, and I don't like people sending me letters when nobody knows where the fuck I am."

"Hey, easy now," he replied, putting both hands in the air as she pointed her gun at him a second time. "No need to get ornery." He crept forward and held out the letter.

She grabbed it from his hand and opened it carefully. Inside was a brief note, hardly worth spending money on.

"Raven -

It would be safest if you didn't go tonight.

But if you must, you'd better bring extra ammunition.

Irene"

Mystique's bewilderment grew. "Irene. That the woman who gave you this?"

"Don't rightly know," he said. "She didn't give no name. But I suppose the boys at the post office know more. I'm just the hired man for this job."

"Lucky you," she replied before she put a bullet in his chest, and another between the eyes before he'd dropped more than a couple inches. The back of his head exploded, spraying gray matter everywhere.

Mystique had already forgotten him. This Irene person, whoever she was, had to be connected with her meeting that night. She would be disguising herself as a man, not for the first or the fiftieth time, for a meeting with some disreputable sorts for a train robbery. They were going to rob the passengers, and then Mystique was going to kill them.

"Them", including her fellow thieves.

Mystique tapped her chin with the hot barrel of her pistol thoughtfully. A relative or a lady friend of one of her future "colleagues", she reckoned. Stupid woman thought she was doing the right thing, saving an innocent woman from an ambush -

But they thought they were meeting a MAN.

And how the fuck did this Irene know when and where she'd be coming from?

There was nothing else for it. Mystique was going to have to ride up to Amarillo when this was over with, find this Irene woman, and have a "chat" with her.

First, though, she had a meeting to attend.

Still, she took the bullets from the gun holstered in the dead man's belt, and the extra bullets in his saddlebag. It had nothing to do with the note, she told herself. She could always use more.

* * *

Raven woke up with a start. "Irene," she whispered, putting a hand next to her and finding nothing. She looked over and realized she'd been so tired that she'd fallen asleep without even lying down. She'd also managed to keep a death's grip on the picture frame, so that it didn't fall and shatter on the floor.

"Irene," she repeated. Back when she was known as Mystique, she'd become just one of many, many people who had received letters from Irene. But she'd been the only one to take Irene to bed.

Of course, Irene had known that would happen too. Blind to something an inch in front of her face, her powers did allow her to see the future, albeit a hundred different futures at once.

Had she known Raven would die tomorrow? She wouldn't have told Raven if she had. God knew Irene never breathed a word of her own death to Raven. Why she couldn't do it - why she never even told Raven WHY she couldn't - would haunt her forever. Had she foreseen failure?

She couldn't save her love. Her love hadn't even asked her to try. How was she going to save the town?

"I wish I had a letter from you now, Irene," she said out loud. "I know you could have if you wanted to. You made me your damn delivery girl after you died." She closed her eyes. "Tell me what to do. Fuck's sake, you could just lie and tell me we'll all be dandy."

But Irene never lied. She just - left things out. Raven hoped this wasn't one of those times.

Raven put the picture aside and lay down. She had no earthly reason to be awake right now. She was beat.

Naturally, sleep came slowly.

* * *

"Raven."

The sheriff opened one eye. Emma Frost appeared to be standing next to her bed. "I died," she muttered. "And this is hell."

"Get up," Emma said waspishly. "The reverend came back ten minutes ago. They're on the move. Rose thought maybe we should let you sleep a little longer, but I knew you'd break skulls if you found out they'd done that."

"Damn straight," Raven said. She looked up at the mayor. "Ever heard of knocking?"

"You never lock your door. Coming in seemed more efficient. Besides, who likes being woken up by pounding on their front door?"

"Who likes strange women comin' in without an invitation?"

"You never exactly UNinvited me last night," Emma said. Her eyes trailed along Raven's form, and she smirked.

Raven scowled at her as she sat up. "You need a last look at this?" she asked, cupping her breasts briefly. Raven hadn't worn real clothing besides her hat in years, and of course while she slept her powers stopped working and any clothing she'd simulated reverted to bare skin.

"You know how my powers work, Raven," Emma drawled. "I can relive my memories as easily as breathing."

"Or yapping. Or arguing. Or telling other people what to do," Raven grumbled as she suddenly became clothed.

"I AM an elected official, you know." She turned serious. "Reverend wants to talk to you. Seems the Gang didn't suit his fancy."

"They're Catholics?"

Raven buckled on her pistols and followed Emma outside. The reverend was fidgeting as he sat on the stoop outside her home. "Sheriff," he said, almost leaping to his feet. "We must - "

"I know, I know," she cut him off. "We're getting everyone as far as we can from here, and - "

"No, Sheriff Darkholme," he said. "I was about to say that you must stop these creatures. We cannot allow them to leave here."

"Well," the sheriff said, startled, "you make it sound so simple."

"I do not wish to minimize the danger you are putting yourself in, Sheriff," the preacher said. "But these creatures, they are not of this world. They are devils in borrowed skins. They practice cruel depravities on the living and the dead. Do you know what I think, Sheriff?"

She gestured for him to go on.

"I believe they are the deadly sins come to life."

"Thought there were just the five," Deputy Waylon rumbled from behind the sheriff. She hadn't even noticed him.

"The scorpion, he was wrathful," the reverend said, ignoring him. "Spitting his poison, angry at being there, angry at not leaving, angry at everything! The fat man, gluttony, consuming the flesh of the dead! The lustful wolf, ravaging the women, and the greedy serpent, plundering everything." He rubbed his forehead in agitation.

"I'd like to believe the fifth was sloth, but I don't suppose that's right," Emma said.

He laughed nervously. "Perhaps insanity should be a sin, because the one they called Palmetto is utterly mad. Sheriff, these things are abominations in the eyes of our Lord. They must be stopped."

"Doesn't the Good Book say that vengeance is the Lord's?" Raven asked indifferently, having never been a churchgoer.

"The Lord helps those who help themselves, Sheriff," he replied. "My parishioners will be pray for your success today, AND for their damnation."

Raven nodded. "Shouldn't you be seeing to the flock then?"

"Of course. I just needed to get these things off my chest. I witnessed horrors that will live with me always, sheriff. I did these things for this town."

"I don't doubt your loyalty to Amazing any more than I doubt your piety, Reverend," Raven said. "I'd just feel better if anyone who isn't fightin' gets as far away from here as possible."

"Do not worry about me, Sheriff Darkholme. As you know, with a thought I am - "

BAMF!

"Well," Raven said once he'd vanished in a puff of smoke, "now that we've had our exhortation from on high, I guess it's time we faced the music. Waylon, where are the others?"

"Rose flew off to roust 'em," Waylon told her, turning his head slightly so that his neck made cracking noises. "They'll be here soon."

"Good," Raven said. She looked at Emma.

"Shouldn't you be moving on too?"

"In a moment," Emma told her. "I DO need one minute alone with you, though. Deputy?"

Waylon tipped his hat. "Mayor," he said, striding away.

"Am I receivin' my final orders?" Raven asked.

"You say that like you won't be around to receive any more," Emma said.

"Or like you won't be around to give 'em."

"Resent me all you like, but I'll be praying for your safety too," Emma told her. "Please, Raven, be careful today. Don't go forgetting you can't take a punch the way Rose or Kay can. If something happens to you, I'd fear for the others twice as much."

"Hmph. Maybe if you'd let me lock Jason UP the next time he breaks the law, I'd consider it."

"Fine then," Emma said. "You can throw the book at him next time, as long as you make sure you're alive to do it."

Raven adjusted her gun belt. "Well. Guess I've got a new reason to live." She took off her hat and waved Emma away. "Go on, git. Make sure Crystal's safe. Like you said the other day, this is no place for a girl her age."

"No place for a woman any age. Or man," Emma said, but she did as suggested.

The sheriff watched her leave. She cut a damn fine figure walking away.

Plus there was the peace and quiet that tended to follow her departure.

Then Raven realized how quiet the town was, like a ghost town, and Emma's bickering didn't seem so unwelcome.

"Oh, well," Raven murmured. "Guess I'll just have to kill the whole Gang now."

To be continued . . .


	11. Chapter Ten

Title: Amazing, Arizona (10/??)

Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.

Rating: R

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Chapter 10

The snake narrowed its eyes and let its tongue flick out briefly, almost caressing the boulder. "Thisss should not be here," it said.

"Maybe it fell," Whale suggested.

Forktongue shot him a look of contempt. "From where, exsssactly? There are no cliffsss here, idiot."

"I don't know," the fat man mumbled.

"You're thinkin' someone put it here," Wolf said, his hands resting on his hips. "Why not just tear up the tracks? Seems like a lot less work."

"Don't know," Forktongue said. "Very sssussspiciousss. The people from the next town mussst have done thisss."

"Coulda been the folks at Tombstone," Whale pointed out carefully, as if afraid the rattlesnake would bite his head off again.

Which he in fact did. "SSSure, Whale," Forktongue sneered. "They rode tensss of milesss into the desssert to put a sssingle rock on the tracksss. Then they rode away again. Perhapsss we should not engage sssuch tacticiansss."

"It ain't my fault if I don't know what's going on!" Whale burst out. "You don't know what's going on neither!"

"No, but I can guesss," the rattler said. "It isss posssible that we have a sssolution to our problem."

Wolf and Whale digested this for a moment. Then Whale burped and spat something out that kicked up dirt near Wolf's feet.

"Shit, watch where you're spittin' skulls, Whale," Wolf snapped.

"Sorry."

"Where isss Striker?" Forktongue asked.

"Back in the cab with Palmetto," Wolf answered. One head looked back at the train while the other held the rattlesnake's gaze. "Wonderin' what we're talking about, most like. You're sayin' - "

"I sssay we sssend Striker into town, like we alwaysss do," Forktongue answered. "And then we wait. We let Palmetto play with hisss whissstle, and we wait for Striker to return while we hope for sssomething different."

Whale smiled with the grin of a predator. "I get it now," he said.

"Good. It isss about fucking time!"

"I tell ya, it ain't my fault!"

"I do not care! Move the boulder or eat it, and make yourssself ussseful!"

* * *

"What's the one thing to remember, Kay?" Raven asked.

Kay made a face. "Hell, Sheriff, we've gone over this a dozen times. Ah think ah know what we're supposed to do by now!"

"Humor me."

"Don't look like you're laughing," Kay muttered. "We split 'em up. Don't let 'em fight together."

"That's right," Raven said. "We scatter. Even with 'em outnumbered two-to-one, they'd kill us in a slugfest. But if we get 'em without someone watchin' their backs, we can take them!" she added fervently.

"And then we celebrate. And I git good n' drunk."

"Nice of you to stay sober for the occasion, Kay," Raven murmured.

"Don't mention it."

The town had been cleared of citizens, except for their little deputized posse. If any - or all - of the Gang survived today, they'd have to ride or walk for ten miles if they wanted to kill anyone else. And even then, Mayor Frost was guarding the townsfolk with her not-inconsiderable powers.

Raven had spread her forces out on either side of the main thoroughfare. Lorna Cassidy, Ororo and Thomas were in the hotel lobby. Deputy Rose and Sean Cassidy at the bank. Deputy Waylon and Angelo Espinosa in her office. She'd taken Kay under her wing and stationed herself at the saloon. Each building had a back entrance through which they'd be able to fall back through if they could draw out the individual Gang members. Which Raven believed they would. They would be too confident in their own individual powers.

Simon Stagg was still unconscious at the jail. Raven was inclined to leave him there and let God sort it out.

"And don't forgit - the little one they call Palmetto. Don't kill him. Killin him's easy. We gotta knock him out withOUT killing him."

"Damn it, Sheriff, you tell me this shit one more time and I'm a-going to start forgetting some of - "

She grew quiet as she heard the noise. Raven heard it too, of course.

Train a-coming.

* * *

Demona hissed with barely-contained fury as she stuffed a small satchel with shotgun shells and attached it to her waist. Stupid humans with their stupid, accursed powers!

Well, she had powers of her own, and she had ways to compensate for the powers she didn't have. Like, say, being able to walk freely during the daylight hours. How did those egotistical humans think she had arrived safely in the Arizona Territory anyway? In a crate on the railroad?

She touched the diamond-shaped pendant around her neck. Allegedly it had been scavenged from the body of a monster killed in the jungles south of Mexico. She didn't know if the legend was true, and she didn't know if the monster in question was a gargoyle. What she did know was that it kept her awake when the sun was up, for those emergency situations, so it was probably intended for gargoyle ownership.

And she'd murdered the previous owner on the reasoning that if it was his, then perhaps a gargoyle's blood was on his hands.

Although even if it wasn't, what was wrong with one more dead human?

Speaking of which, there was going to be a bloodbath today in the town of Amazing, and Demona was going to watch. Specifically she would watch the death of that arrogant blond _insect_, and her impostor, that manipulative whore who had attempted to trick her into helping them.

And perhaps once the Gang arrived and occupied their attention, Demona could slip into the shadows and locate the bitch who had mindfucked her the night before. No slow torture for her, sadly. A quick death would be necessary, before the presumptuous creature stole her mind again.

Demona buckled her mace to her waist. The club and the firearm were for protection, in case she crossed paths with the Gang themselves. They couldn't kill her permanently, but that didn't mean she wouldn't defend herself to the death.

She sneered. Maybe she should just kill whoever was left standing. Let the humans see how far gargoyles outstripped their kind.

* * *

"This is plumb stupid," Striker growled as he hopped down from the train. "Why the fuck am I still doing this?"

"Tesssting the watersss, Striker," Forktongue hissed. "Let usss know if today will require a chassse."

"You know damn well it will!" Striker snapped. "The last town was deserted, and you made us hunt 'em down! There's gold and killin' to spare in Tombstone, and by the time we fuckin' get there, they're gonna have the goddamn Eighth Army - "

"You've made your posssition known, Striker," the rattler interrupted. "Now go into town and do your cursssed job!"

Striker muttered a string of choice vulgarities as he adjusted his longcoat so that his tail was more comfortable. Then he strode past the telegraph office and into Amazing.

"I think you just lahk makin' him mad," Palmetto tittered.

"I have my reasonsss," Forktongue told him. "And I don't much like him anything, including mad."

As Striker went on cursing the rattlesnake's name in a low voice, Raven couldn't believe what she was seeing in the distance. A single man, marching up the street. From what she knew of the Gang, there were only two members who could fit that description - the scorpion Striker, and the snake Forktongue. If the snake was in human form, that was, and since that was also its weakest form, Raven couldn't imagine it was him.

Striker didn't know it, but he was heavily outnumbered. He would be, that was, until the Gang stormed in to back him up. She had to put as much ground between Striker and the rest if she wanted to cut the Gang's numbers by one right off the bat. "Kay," she murmured. "Do me a favor?"

"More humorin'?" Kay grumbled.

"If you don't mind, go into the street and start running away from the man who's coming towards us."

Kay glared at her. "I'm here for my fists, not my feet, beggin' your pardon, Sheriff," she said wilfully.

"You're also an attractive young woman who most men drool over, so if he sees you, I think it's likely he'll want you before one of his pardners gets you first," Raven replied. "Just shake a leg, Kay."

"And what do I do if he catches me?"

"He won't, but if he does, you just beat him into a stain on the dust."

"Well, that's a bit more to my liking," Kay admitted before she burst out of the saloon doors, took one look at the man coming, and ran away.

Striker froze in place. If the rest of the Gang had been with him, odds were Wolf woulda fucked her, or Whale would've eaten her. Or both. "Well, he DID say somethin' about a chase," Striker muttered, a leer emerging on his lips. He dashed after her.

By then Kay had turned the corner and run to the left. Once Striker had disappeared after her, Raven took a last look down the thoroughfare and ran across the street to the bank. "Rose!" she hissed.

"What in tarnation is Kay doin'?!" Rose blurted out.

"What I damn well told her, which is what you need to be doing!" Raven shot back. "You go after them, and you take that man, and you carry him as far AWAY from the train as you can without goin' too far for the rest of us to catch up. We kill him fast and quiet, the Gang won't be able to save him. And if we AIN'T quiet, then at least we'll be far!"

"You got it, Sheriff," Rose said instantly, running out the door.

"What about me, Sheriff?" Sean asked.

"You stay behind, Sean," she told him. "I'm takin' some of the others. You see the rest of the Gang coming, well, we'll hear your voice faster'n any gunshot."

She hurried back into the street. What could the rest of the Gang be DOING? Was the scorpion a distraction while they flanked the town? The thought chilled her, but why WOULD they? They couldn't have anything to fear from a few farmers.

"Thomas!" she called as loudly as she dared. "Waylon! Follow me now!"

Her deputy and the newly-liberated Negro burst out from their stations, but Raven had already turned and run the moment she spotted them. Three strongest people in town, a fourth who could copy 'em - and her. As Emma had pointed out, she was the fifth wheel on this Conestoga, but she was also the one holding the reins.

* * *

"Well, now ain't your peaches fine?" Striker slobbered as his tail squeezed Kay tightly around the waist, holding her against the wall and out of arm's reach.

Kay pounded squarely on his tail, but it was like punching solid metal. And it was long enough that her first few swings had fallen short of his jaw by inches. "I'da take offense at having these compared to _peaches_, cocksucker, but I'm already offended as it is."

"You're a-gonna wish you were better DEfended when I'm through with you," Striker said, laughing at his joke.

"If it's a peach you're in the mood fer, we got one right from Georgia," Kay told him.

An arm suddenly wrapped around his neck and pulled mightily. Striker arches his back, shocked. He let go of Kay, dropping her, and arched his tail back over his head, trying to strike his ambusher. "Leggo!" he snarled.

"Sorry, orders," Rose said, dodging a strike from his poisoned barb and hoisting him into the air as her feet left the ground.

"Wha - fuck!"

"Hey, sheriff promised me I could beat him flat," Kay complained.

Rose was startled at how strong the man was. His hat tumbled off, and she was surprised by something else. Not only was he completely bald, but his head was covered by some kind of glossy shell - like a scorpion's hide, she figured - on which no hair would ever grow. "You wanna join the party, I expect Sheriff's not gonna say no."

Another strike from his tail hit her in the shoulder, but her skin proved as impervious to oversized scorpion stingers as it had to cannonballs when she was younger. It did feel like a heavy punch to the body, though, and she almost was forced to let go. Whirling about a few times in the air, she built enough speed to toss him several yards down the road, forcing him to land in a tangled heap.

"You - little - bitch!" Striker growled, slowly getting to his feet. He looked hurt, but his tail came forward with impossible speed and squirted a noxious green liquid at Rose. The poison was slower than his tail was, though, and she dodged it before flying forward and hitting him in the chest with both fists, sending him onto his back again.

"Make some room, depity!" Kay crowed as she came up behind her and tackled the scorpion as he was getting to his knees. She was off him lightning quick and got onto his back, straddling the base of his tail where it met his back like it was a saddle. She wrapped both arms around his tail and pulled back and forth. "Looks like we got us a right good rodeo!"

"Get offa me!"

"Fuck off," Rose said before she planted her foot on the back of his head and drove his face into the dirt. "Now that we got him, what the hell do we DO with 'im?"

"We help him to his feet," Raven said.

The two women looked at her.

"Don't look at me, deputy, you just introduce our guest's face to your feet a few more times," Raven said.

"Right, Sheriff," she said apologetically before she started kicking Striker's face in.

"Thomas, you take Rose's powers, because she's the strongest here," Raven said. "Then you and Waylon hold his arms and get him standin'."

"Sure thing, Sheriff," Waylon grumbled as he came forward. A rainbow-like light surrounded Thomas briefly before it stretched out and touched Rose. The light didn't dim as Thomas joined Waylon and easily pulled the Gang member to his feet. Kay held the tail in place, still yanking on it like she thought she could pull it out like a splinter. Maybe she did, Raven thought. Maybe she even could, but there were easier ways to kill a man.

"You sure are ugly, Striker," Raven said as he struggled vainly against four people whose combined strength dwarfed his. His tail squirted poison uselessly, as Kay kept it directed away from everyone else. "What is that shit on your face? The mayor would know the word. Bug skin, I call it. Guess that's why the Army couldn't just put a bullet in your face."

"You just keep your jawin', you blue bitch," Striker snarled at her. "Fuckin' muties you may be, but you ain't got muties like we do! We - "

"Yeah, yeah," Raven said, reaching forward and grabbing his nose in her fist, squeezing.

Striker's head shook as his cheeks turned an even brighter shade of red, and then he inhaled loudly.

As Emma had observed, Raven brought leadership, shapechanging, and a VERY fast gun to the table. Of course, Emma had also noted that bullets didn't seem to do much good against the Charnel House Gang.

Raven wagered bullets could good when the gun barrel was in Striker's mouth before he could close it. "Rose, you mind movin' your head?"

"Whatever you say, Sheriff."

She moved her head to the left, but it wasn't necessary. Raven fired four times, and not one of her bullets came out the other side.

Waylon whistled.

"Ain't so special," Raven said. "How you doin' on the inside, Striker?"

He didn't answer her. Blood bubbled from his mouth and his ears as she drew her revolver out.

"Drop him," she commanded, and when they hesitantly let go, his body hit the ground fast.

"His brain ain't bulletproof," Raven added.

"Dayamn," Kay said. "We just done killed one of the Charnel House!"

"Yes," Raven said. "Now we have to stay calm, and NOT get any stupid ideas about how easy it'll be to kill the other four!"

"Maybe they'll leave if they see he's dead, Sheriff?" Thomas asked shyly.

Raven paused. "You know, Thomas, that ain't an entirely bad notion. Rose? Your arm good as ever?"

* * *

"Takin' a while, dontcha think?" Wolf said as he lounged against the train engine. "Think he found something nice, don't want to share?"

"Or perhapsss he found sssomething not ssso nice?" Forktongue replied.

"Hell, Forktongue," Whale blustered. "You think it'd be so quiet if there was fightin' going on? The dumb fuck townsfolk probably sent twenty boys to move that rock onto the tracks so they'd have more time to clear out."

"Thossse twenty boysss would have been better ssspent moving the dumbfuck humansss out of town, eh?" Forktongue sneered. "And if the town isss empty, then where the hell ISSS he?"

Whale looked away. "Don't see why you gotta be so mean today," he whined.

"Of courssse you do not. You are ssstupid. If you were sssmarter, you would sssee. Or at leassst you would know to shut up when you do not know what you are talking about. Of courssse," Forktongue continued cruelly, "if you were sssmarter, then you would know what you are talking about in the firssst place. Ah, if only you were not ssso fucking ssstupid!"

"That's it," Whale roared. "I'm havin' barbecued snake meat tonight if you don't shut your fangs pronto!"

"I will ssswallow your bloated corpssse like one of thossse sssnakes in the jungle," Forktongue hissed, "and you will ssspend daysss dying as I digessst you!"

The sound of the train's bell being rung startled them both, and they looked up.

"If we're going to talk so much," Palmetto said, one eye spinning madly in its socket, "then can we talk about why Wolf has to be the first to stick his cock into every woman in every town we go to!"

"You don't even like fucking humans, Palmetto," Wolf grunted.

"Yes, but I want to argue too!"

"Fuck'ssssake," Forktongue muttered. "Perhapsss I should have risssked sssomeone elssse's neck!"

It was then that Striker's neck, along with the rest of his body, fell from the sky, clipping the telegraph office as it descended. It crashed to earth, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The Gang stared for a moment.

"Woo-hoo!" Palmetto finally shrieked. "I want to see that agin!"

"What the hell just happened?" Wolf asked, stunned.

"Looks like Striker done got kicked outta town!" Whale blurted out.

"Kicked, thrown, catapulted, it makesss no difference," Forktongue hissed, nosing Striker's corpse. "What mattersss isss he died. SSSomeone in that town accomplished what no army could before. I wish to meet this perssson." He sneered at Whale. "Unless you suppose twenty able-bodied men did this?"

"They got machines that can throw things like that," Whale grumbled. "I seen 'em in books."

"Then I wish to meet the perssson who killed a member of the Charnel Houssse Gang, ssso I may remind people that thisss doesss not happen twice!" Forktongue whipped his tail at Whale's hand, as the hideous bulk reached out for Striker's body. "And he isss not for eating!"

"The vultures'll git him anyway!"

"They will not get him here! You will bring him with usss. Drag him if you like, but we are going in. Including you, Palmetto."

The alien creature looked fretful. "The train – "

"Your choo-choo will be fine," Forktongue sighed. "You can ring the bell when we return."

* * *

Raven couldn't quite believe the situation they were in. She was with Kay in the saloon, just like they were not fifteen minutes ago. The plan was still in place.

They'd just killed one of the Gang, that was all.

Her heart was racing. She wasn't nervous. She was just – fuck, she was starting to believe they might make it OUT of this!

"Human!"

Raven and Kay both started. The voice had been loud, but dry and animalistic. Not even Waylon could have shouted like that.

"Mutie! Whatever you are! Come out!"

Raven tightened her grip on the sandalwood holster of her gun. What was approaching down the main street was a sight she'd seen only once before, and hoped never to see again. A giant serpent that pulled its body across the sand. A two-headed white wolf that walked on its hind legs, its enormous shaft swinging in plain view. A horribly bloated man whose short legs supported his weight only because they were built like tree stumps. A misshapen creature that she knew was covered with short bristles like fur, its antennae standing straight.

Seeing them together like this was the only way to appreciate the Charnel House Gang in all their awful monstrosity – the worst creatures to walk the earth, brought together by a desperate Confederacy.

And it WAS the entire Gang, Raven saw. Striker was being hauled unceremoniously along the dirt by his tail, gripped in one meaty fist by the Whale.

"Christ," Kay whispered. "Them's the most awful things I ever seen."

"You want to run?" Raven asked, more harshly than she intended.

"Not enough, Sheriff."

"Well, hopefully the others don't want to run enough either," she said.

The rattlesnake said something to the Whale, and he tossed Striker's corpse out in front of them. Then he opened his mouth again. Raven was close enough that she could see the poison dripping from his fangs.

"Nobody doesss thessse thingsss to the Gang and getsss away with it!" Forktongue roared. "Only the Gang doesss asss it pleassses."

Then he grinned slyly. "However, sssince we appear to have a vacancy, we would like to extend an invitation to join! Then you too will be Gang, and you can get away with thisss after all!"

Raven stared. Of all the things he could have said, this was the most unexpected.

"Thisss isss not a trick!" Forktongue promised. "You think I require vengeance? He meant nothing to me, to usss! He wassss a nuisssance! And he will know not even a quiet grave. Whale?"

"My pleasure," the fat man said. He took a step forward.

Raven had seen him do this once before, but she hadn't been able to repeat it for the benefit of the townsfolk. Her other imitations had scared them enough. Still, she should have shown this to her deputized posse.

Whale's mouth dropped, and dropped, until his chin almost brushed the earth. His cheeks spread as his mouth grew wider as well, until it was almost a perfect circle several feet across.

Then he took a deep, prolonged breath, and Raven could FEEL the boards of the saloon where she rested one hand tremble. The Whale, she suspected, could have inhaled a horse at fifty paces with a breath like that.

Striker's body was much less than fifty paces, and it disappeared halfway into Whale's mouth before the tail hooked on his cheek. Whale impatiently used his hands to cram the remainder of his corpse into his gullet until it was all gone. Then his jaw snapped upwards with a clacking sound like a gunshot. He patted his stomach and belched loudly.

"You sssee?" Forktongue asked triumphantly. "You have done usss a favor. Let usss repay you. Be one of usss, not sssome farmer or shopkeeper! We will even ssspare thisss missserable town! Sssave your family, before you sssay goodbye forever!"

"Eat shit, monster," Raven murmured as she aimed her gun at the enormous target presented by Whale's belly.

"Sheriff, look!" Kay gasped, grabbing her by the arm.

Raven turned her head slightly, and her yellow eyes widened. "What the fuck is she DOING?"

Deputy Rose floated out of her hiding place and hovered in front of Forktongue. "Ah'm the one who tossed him," she said calmly. "How about we get out of this Hicksville and make for Tombstone?"

To be continued . . .


	12. Chapter Eleven

Title: Amazing, Arizona (11/??)

Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.

Rating: R

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

* * *

Chapter 11

"Just a whore, Forktongue," Wolf sneered. "Lemme have her."

"Ah ain't no whore," Rose retorted.

"All women're whores," he said. "That's why they gots what they got between their legs."

"Shut it," Forktongue snapped at Wolf. He looked at Rose. "Ssso. You sssay you did thisss. How?"

"Ah kin fly, as you kin see," Rose said, her toes still a few inches from the dirt. "And ah'm strong, stronger than him. Ah surprised him, beat him down, shoved mah Colt in his mouth, and pulled the trigger 'til the blood came out his ears." She fingered the handle of the pistol in her holster.

"Forget about your gun for now," Forktongue warned her. "It will do you no good now. And you sssay you're ssstronger? Care to prove it?"

"How?"

"Hit - him," Forktongue said, pointing his rattle at Wolf. "Hard asss you like."

"Now wait a minute," Wolf said. "Ain't no whore gonna hurt me anyway, but I ain't gonna stand here while you let someone get a free shot - "

Rose interrupted him with a powerful uppercut, her left fist shutting the mouth of his right head with brute power. His head snapped up several inches and he staggered back. A second blow, a right delivered to his other head now, almost laid him low.

"That isss enough," Forktongue told her. "You ssspeak true."

"I like her," Palmetto said, capering gleefully as Wolf regained his balance and shook his heads. "Can we keep her? I want to see her do that again."

"You sneaky bitch," Wolf snarled. His claws glinted in the sunlight as he spread his paws on either side.

Forktongue lifted his rattler's tail and planted it against Wolf's chest, pushing back deliberately. "Forgive him," he hissed at Rose. "He hasss two headsss, and yet only one brain, which unfortunately liesss between hisss legsss. Myssself, I am not human, and consssequently I do not concccern myself with beliefsss sssuch asss male sssuperiority."

"You ain't?" Rose asked, surprised.

He narrowed his slit eyes cunningly. "We intelligent non-human creaturesss are rare, true, but we DO ssstill exissst. Palmetto isss another. SSSurely you did not think all livesss you cannot underssstand are humansss with giftsss like yourssself?"

"Nevah much gave it thought," she acknowledged.

"SSSo," he said, becoming business-like. Which was almost ludicrous, coming from a giant snake. "You are ssstrong like usss, and you fly. Isss there anything elssse I should know?"

"Cain't be hurt by much," Rose told him. "Which I'll ask your mutt to keep in mind next time he thinks ah'm a whore."

Wolf growled at her, but Forktongue pushed him with his tail a second time. "You sssay that like you wish to join usss."

"You takin' the offer back?"

"No, no, it isss jussst . . . you wear a badge."

Rose took it off and snapped it between two fingers. "People lahk me, we're REAL good at keepin' the peace."

"And disssturbing it asss well?"

She smiled a little. "Ah reckon. Only, if ah'm joinin' you, we might as well head fer Tombstone. The town done cleared out, and there ain't much worth stealin'."

Forktongue smiled back. "I found what I came looking for. I heard - rumorsss of mutantsss out here. Ssstriker wasss a nuisssance. You may do - although I won't promissse to let you live if you don't pan out."

"Ah won't promise to knock you silly if one of you tries takin' a bite o' me."

"So whut, we're just leaving?" Whale asked, flabbergasted.

"You heard - what isss your name anyway?"

"It's Rose."

"Rossse - too weak a name. I will think of sssomething better. Rogue, perhapsss? Whale, Rogue hasss reminded usss that there isss much more money to be had in Tombssstone. More feeding too."

Whale burped and picked at his teeth. He extracted a piece of chitin from between two incisors and tossed it aside.

Then there was a loud crack, and Whale cursed as he looked down and saw a dozen tiny rivulets of thin, red, watery blood trickling down his chest from little holes. "Fuckin' shotgun pellets," he muttered.

Forktongue's eyes bored into Rose's. The sound of a second shot didn't seem to concern him - and why should it? "Trick!" he shrieked. He spread his jaws wide, his fangs speeding toward Rose's torso.

* * *

"Sheriff!" Kay burst out. "What - "

"Forward!" Raven barked. "Do what we planned." She dove through the swinging doors of the saloon and drew both pistols, firing one into the gigantic, soft belly of the Whale. The other spat bullets that pinged off the well-armored head of the serpent. She had to buy Rose time to retreat from the full fury of the Gang, and the only way she could do that was by making them look in two different directions or more.

As a third arm snaked out of her body and began reloading one of her pistols while she kept firing with the one in her left hand, Raven's mind was tossed about. What had Rose been thinking, sacrificing herself to those monsters to save the town? She'd been about to put a bullet into the Whale herself when the sound of a shotgun split the air.

And there was the other question - who in hell fired those shots?

"Ambush! Ambush!" Palmetto screamed shrilly as a hailstorm of fire erupted from other town buildings. Rose flew directly upwards, the only direction she could go without blocking someone's fire. A bullet caught him in the eye and exploded gray matter all over the street. He collapsed, but a second later his corpse began pulsating with the energy of something inside trying to get out.

Forktongue continued to ignore the bullets that whined as they glanced off his scales. They weren't a worry. He cast a look upwards at the retreating Rose. "When you come down, we will find out jussst what can hurt you and what can't," he said before turning his gaze to the one other person who had shown herself.

Whale sneered as he focused his attention on the hotel, where some of the fire was coming from. His body was wet with blood, but not his lifeblood, the stuff that counted. No one spilled that, not with a pistol anyway. Bullets spent themselves before they could push through his immense layers of fat, and the liquid that flowed was closer to juices than blood. He spread his legs before charging forward, his short, stocky legs pounding the earth like they were hammers. "Little pigs," he grunted. "I'm a comin-in!"

Palmetto's body was torn apart from within as a new creature clawed its way out. "Can't kill me, nohow!" he screamed exultantly, his body drenched in purple blood.

Raven put two more bullets through his head, lifting him off his feet and throwing him back down on the ground. "Shut you up for a couple seconds," she muttered.

Her head snapped back as Forktongue and Wolf approached contemptuously. "Looks like the whore ain't the only mutie in this town," Wolf said, leering at her body. "Hey, bet no one's ever wanted to fuck a blueberry like you before. Want to try it out?"

"Mongrel," she breathed, putting four bullets into his chest. They flattened out against a pelt that was too thick and shaggy for them to penetrate. All she did was slow him down.

Forktongue, however, stopped entirely. "Not the only mutant," he said. "And where there are two, there may be three, or four, or - " He snapped his head behind him. "Whale!" he shouted.

Whale, however, had already disappeared through the enormous hole he'd smashed through the hotel facade.

"Your ticket is only good as far as Amazing, boys," Raven told them.

Then Kay leapt through the second-story window above the saloon doors, landing on the top of Forktongue's head with both feet first, pile-driving his head into the dust. She fell awkwardly, but got back up and crushed him across the face with a heavy haymaker.

Raven tossed two more shots at Wolf's shocked heads before retreating into the alleys of Amazing. He gaped at the snake, barely feeling the sting of her bullets on his cheeks.

"Get her!" Forktongue snapped, shooting him a look as he attempted to score a hit on Kay with his fangs but missed. Her doubled fists hit him from below, lifting his head several inches and making him see stars for a second.

Wolf felt himself getting hard. He howled, then ran after the blue-skinned woman.

* * *

Demona chuckled, satisfied with herself as she ran along the rooftops of Amazing. She'd come to see these people slaughter each other, and that stupid mutant woman almost lured the Gang back onto their train. Much as Athena once tricked a prince of Troy into attacking the Greeks from behind and thus extending the Trojan War for ten years, however, Demona had fired both barrels of her shotgun into a target as big as a barn door. Now the Gang thought they'd been attacked, and the townsfolk would have to respond. Their deaths would be sweet.

Oddly enough, when she'd emptied her barrels into the Whale, she'd been angry. Angry that those stupid humans chose peace when she wanted war, and war when she needed peace! But there was also anger at -

She frowned as she looked for a safer viewing spot. She'd been angry, she realized, with the arrogant sheriff of Amazing, Arizona. All the mutant's talk of defending the town, not needing her help, and then the bitch was willing to just let her deputy buy them off with the promise of her powers. She was as human as the humans. Demona had been disappointed in her copy.

Why disappointed, she had no idea.

* * *

"Impulsive idiot! You need to lead your people, not get them killed saving the white man!" Cactus Fire snapped as she plowed out of her teepee.

"I am leading our people," Lightning Flash said calmly.

"Leading them to their deaths," she retorted.

"The herds are disappearing, sister," he told her. He spoke as he worked at erecting a large stockpile of bows, quivers of arrows, and tomahawks, while the other Apache braves mounted their horses. "Some day, the whites will take their place, and our people will either die or be moved onto reservations. This is for our pride, sister. We will kill what the white man could not. By our deeds we will show we are the better men."

"And what of your women?" Cactus Fire reminded him.

"They will have new stories for our children."

"Father said we were to be chiefs together until you were ready to lead by yourself. Is my counsel no longer worth anything to you? To this tribe?!"

"I am leading. It is not you who decides when I am ready. It is I." He looked at his people. "You ride for the town. You ride for glory!"

The Apache whooped as they kicked at their steeds, but Chief Lightning Flash said nothing as he took a bow, two quivers, and a tomahawk in his arms. Then he vanished, leaving a trail of dust behind him as he made for the town with blinding speed.

His sister watched him leave. "Very well," she said, freely summoning her powers to her fingers. They burst into green flames that did not burn her flesh. "You are the chief. And when you are dead and they come for us, it will be up to me to protect our people."

* * *

Whale snarled as he smashed out the back wall of a second building. So far all he'd gotten for his trouble was lead and wood splinters in his belly. He'd shed it later, like he always did, but right now it was annoying.

"Pig man!"

The fat man turned about to his left. Facing him was a white man with reddish curly hair, and a colored youth. They were standing close enough to touch, but the only thing connecting the two was an odd light the color of rainbows. "Well," he said, slobbering. "Wonder if I should start with the white meat or the dark."

"Remember, like I showed you," Sean said to Thomas. "From your diaphragm."

"Still don't know what a diafam is, suh, but ah remembah," Thomas replied.

Whale lowered his jaw even as they opened their mouths, but their jaws had a lot less distance to travel. The air shimmered before his eyes for a second before he was assaulted by a high-pitched whine that made his eardrums bleed, and an invisible force that hit his body like a coal-powered train and started pushing him backwards.

"Gawd-DAAAAMN!" he grunted through clenched teeth as he was shoved onto his back and rolled down the alley behind the main thoroughfare several yards before crashing into the rear of a residence.

"Let's go, suh, befoe he gets up," Thomas said.

"I believe you're right, Thomas," Sean replied as they went looking for different prey. The sheriff had made herself clear - she had a specific person in mind for finishing off each of the surviving Gang members.

"Thankya, suh," Thomas added as they moved. "White folk don't call me bah mah name much."

"Well, if you'll call me 'Sean' instead of 'sir', I'll call you Thomas all you like," Sean Cassidy promised him.

* * *

Wolf growled as he smelled the air. He'd lost the blue-skinned bitch, and there were too many scents in the air. Smelled like pussy in every direction.

"Didn't anybody tell you that dogs are supposed to walk on four legs, Rover?"

One of his heads smiled, showing rows of razor-sharp teeth that gleamed like metal in the sunlight. The other turned and looked at Kay Starr, all by her lonesome, her chest heaving with exertion.

And what a fine chest it was!

"I've also done heard how dogs are supposed to fuck," he said cruelly as he turned slowly, letting her see him in all his raw animal power. "You know that too?"

Kay swallowed, as memories she wasn't tolerably fond of crept unbidden into her head. "I know how to put a dog down when it ain't right in the head," she said. She didn't like the way he palmed himself below the waist. If his mind was on fucking instead of fighting, then that was in her favor. But the sight sickened her.

Wolf grinned. "Come on then," he said. "Put me down."

* * *

"God-damned hu-mans," Palmetto cursed under his breath. Shot twice in two minutes, and now he found himself all alone in the main street. He kicked at one of his own corpses, his veins just barely pulsating below the skin. He wasn't afraid of dying. He'd been shot dead twenty times in one fight with the Yankees, and he'd slept pleasant dreams that night as a Yankee skull lay nestled in his arms.

What he was afraid of was missing a fight, but the fight was out of sight. There were gunshots and cries from every direction, it seemed, and Palmetto was in an agony of indecision trying to figure out which way he should go. If he'd aknown this would happen, he'd have just waited with the choo-choo.

"Choo-choo," he breathed, snapping his head back the way he'd come. If these sneaky, motherfuckin' humans had ambushed them out here, then what were they doin' to his train?

"Oh no, you don't," Palmetto growled. He began loping back down the street. "Ain't nobody stealin' what I rightfully stole."

He made it fifty feet closer to the train station when a tomahawk caught him in the back of his head, caved his skull in, and spilled brains all over the street.

Chief Lightning Flash came to a halt. At the speed he'd been running, the weapon hurled from his hand had moved faster than the sound it made in the air. He reached down and prodded the alien corpse with two fingers. "My kill," he said.

He felt something bulging beneath his fingers, and it was only his unearthly speed that saved his life, if not his face from being showered with purple blood, as two claws exploded from out of the creature's body. Lightning Flash fell back ten feet, screaming in anger and disgust as he felt his face dripping with something close to blood, but not quite.

Palmetto used his teeth and claws to tear the rest of the way out of his last body. Then he capered in the dust when he saw the Apache warrior soaked in ichor. "Hee hee!" he shrieked. "Palmetto's a survivor, that's what I am!"

The chief didn't understand what he said, but he more than understood this fight wasn't close to over. He unslung his bow and put an arrow in Palmetto's eye before he could even end his celebration.

"This could take a while," he said to himself as his own eye caught the movement in Palmetto's body and knew what would happen next.

* * *

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Demona hissed as she stood up and dusted herself off. Of all the stupid - she just had to stick around and watch, didn't she?

Her hiding place with its view of three different streets and alleyways didn't exist any more, because that oversized Gang member had smashed through it and knocked it into rubble. Without her wings enabling her to glide down safely, she could have broken a leg.

Now was the time to climb onto the roof of another building and glide back home. She'd come to watch them tear each other apart, not find herself sucked into the battle as well.

"You!"

Demona swore as she heard that voice behind her. "Sheriff," she said grudgingly. "How are you doing, now that your oh-so-special plans are up in smoke?"

"Things ain't going so badly, I reckon," Raven replied as she approached slowly. Her eyes caught the shotgun in the gargoyle's right hand, and she quickly deduced that the creature had been the one to start the shooting.

Demona snorted. "I saw how you tried to buy your town's safety with your deputy," she sneered. She didn't even bother to look at the sheriff. There was nothing permanent the sheriff could do to her.

"That was Rose taking her own fool initiative," Raven said heatedly. "I would've stopped her if you hadn't interfered!"

"Face it, human. You may be blue on the outside, but inside you're as blackhearted as every other white person on the planet. Pity. I might have been willing to believe you were different."

"Different from what, you? You came just to stir up trouble, creature. And you're doin' it now by jabberin' at me when I need to be protecting my folk, and puttin' down those murdering monsters like they deserve," Raven told her. Without waiting for Demona to speak again, she brushed past her and ran in the direction she'd been going.

"You should be more scared of me, human," Demona breathed, insulted. She reached into the pouch at her waist to reload her shotgun.

The weapon was yanked from her hands from behind, and she turned to face this latest intrusion. "You - "

Whale smiled down at her. "Ain't this a fine how-do-you-do?" he said. "Breasts, thighs, AND wings? Aren't you the biggest and tastiest-looking chicken I ever done seen?"

Demona swallowed.

It looked like he had swallowing on his mind too.

To be continued . . .


End file.
